On the advent of the World Gravy Wrestling Championships, taking place in Lancashire this Bank Holiday weekend, a question occurred to me.
Has our obsession with the quirky reached a new level?
August Bank Holiday Monday is also the 25th anniversary of the World Bog Snorkelling Championships, where hundreds of competitors from around the globe descend on the Mid Wales town of Llanwrtyd Wells to take part in this wacky event.
This weekend is a very popular time for Highland Gatherings and Games in Scotland, so hammers will be thrown, wars tugged and cabers tossed in Dunoon, Perthshire, Glenurquhart, Lanarch and Invergordon amongst others. The Highland Games are steeped in tradition with their origins in the Scottish Clan system and dating back more than 300 years.
Our Destination PR team looks after around 1,000 journalists and TV crews visiting all parts of the country and between us we have some pretty interesting examples of media requests for Quirky Britain.
From naked gardeners in the Cotswolds, to a tour of Britain's best bathrooms including Heston Blumenthal's talking lavatories at the Little Chef in Popham. the requests are often bizarre and more often than not, media want to really experience something unusual in Britain.
One recent TV crew from Russia wanted to
- stir the clotted cream at Roddas dairy in Cornwall
- clean the giant telescope at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich
- interview an expert on King Arthur
- have a cricket lesson at Lord's, and
- meet a 'real-life' Druid at Stonehenge.
A recent social media project also led to some quirky filming experiences. We teamed up with comedy podcast duo, Helen and Olly, to get to the bottom of some fundamental questions, such as:
Where is the cheesiest place in Britain?
Where is Britain's Hollywood?
and
Where is the best cup of tea in Britain?
These films formed part of a series entitled, Helen and Olly's Great British Questions and was promoted via our Facebook and Twitter channels as well as via the popular Answer Me This podcast which receives more than 1.5 million downloads per year.
Experiential tourism is on the rise and fortunately, to fulfil our quest for the ultimate experience, there are hundreds of learn-to breaks in Britain where you can pick up a new skill, whether it's dry stone walling, baking or archery.
I recently went on a bushcraft/survival course for a week and learned how to make fire by friction, identify edible plants and berries, build a leaf shelter and purify water over the course of four nights in the great outdoors.
My conclusion?
I think I prefer glamping!
If your business has a quirky story that you'd like to share with the world's media, do get in touch with either myself or Val Austin, International Press Visits Manager.
