Content Last Updated on April 9, 2021

Events are back! 

The UK government has finally announced a roadmap for the country to re-open over the next few months, following a year of lockdowns due to the Covid pandemic. Whilst the dates vary slightly for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, the major timeline follows a similar pattern. 

What does this mean for Freshers Festival? What events will we be running and when? We’ve compiled all the information you need right here.

What are the key dates for lockdown easing in England?

For the events industry, the key dates are as follows:

👉 12th April – Outdoor events can start to reopen (subject to a review)

👉 17th May – Larger indoor events can reopen at 50% capacity

👉 21st June – All restrictions end and events can run!

So what does this mean for Freshers Festival?

Freshers Festival have an incredible selection of events planned in 2021 as we celebrate a new and exciting year for students. Last year saw the start of our virtual event programme, as we ran a variety of online events attended by 40,000+ UK students. 2021 is set to be even bigger.

Here is the roadmap of events for 2021 – The ‘Tour de Freshers’:

Our first event – Uplift 2021 –  saw thousands of students watch content from top influencers, discover innovative new brands, and play fun online games!

Here is what we have planned for the rest of the year:

🎓 Futures Fest – May

Futures Fest is a virtual ‘open day’ style event that is all about students looking towards their futures. Futures Festival has a particular focus on the younger GCSE, college, and A Level demographic, as well as current university students, as we seek to provide them with the information they need before making the next step in their lives. Most students at the event will be preparing for university and will be excited to find out about any product or service that they feel could be of use to them once they leave home for the first time.

💻 Virtual Freshers Festival – September

After the success of last year’s event, Virtual Freshers Festival is back and bigger than ever before! Aimed at all college and university students, the event is the perfect place for brands and support organisations to communicate with students on an engaging and interactive platform. Students will be looking for great opportunities and deals, and there will be lots of fun content, including competitions, networking, and prizes, for everyone to enjoy. 

🎉 Freshers Festival Live UK Tour – September / October

The Freshers Festival live tour is back! After 15 years of running the biggest and best fresher events in the UK, we were disappointed to be forced to put the events on hold in 2020. But that simply means Freshers Festival 2021 will be our biggest live event ever! Tens of thousands of students will be arriving at our venues in Glasgow and London, hoping to get some amazing brand deals, find out about local opportunities, and take part in the funnest freshers event in the UK!  Stay tuned for announcements on extra cities being added to the Tour.

⚕️ Student Health & Wellbeing Summit – November

Our surveys show that over 80% of our students have had mental health struggles over the past year. This one-day virtual event will focus on offering students the support they need to end the year on a positive note. We will be working with charities, influencers and experts to deliver key advice and tips for keeping students’ mental and physical health in check. We had a fantastic response last year, and we can’t wait to see what this year’s event will bring!

🏆 National Student Awards – December

We are excited to bring you the first and only event that brings students, brands, student unions, student associations and influencers together under one roof for an unforgettable night of celebration. After 15 years of successful and sell-out student events, we bring you The National Student Awards that will celebrate the accomplishments of brands, Student Unions and students across the UK. More than 100,000 students will be surveyed throughout the year to vote for the worthy winners for each category.

The year is set to be by far the biggest in the history of Freshers Festival, and we can’t wait to see the incredible events come to life over the next months.

What’s in it for brands?

Brands form a key part of our live and digital events. As with any student / university event, attendees expect to discover new and innovative brands, get the best student deals, and take part in fun activations, giveaways, and games from a variety of brands and organisations. 

Through Freshers Festival, we’ve found that event marketing (both virtual and live) provides brands with a platform to build deep relationships with customers and, as Rob Gibbs, Business Development Director at Appco UK claims, “give the brand a real personality”.

Here are some stats showing the benefits of face-to-face marketing:

• 98% of people feel more inclined to purchase a product after attending a face-to-face activation.
• 90% of consumers have more positive feelings towards a brand after attending an event.
• 71% of consumers share information about their experience of event marketing with their friends / family.
• 75% of large companies who engage in event marketing see a huge ROI of 5:1.

But what about Freshers Festival in particular? Here is a story from one of our previous clients at Freshers Festival Glasgow:

A well-known drinks company launched a new energy drink in 2019. This drink was to be targeted at young people, and the company’s marketing team were given £1 million to promote the brand. As is normal for a large company, the team pursued a number of different marketing avenues, including social media promotion, digital marketing, billboards, and other ads. The team also attended Freshers Festival to promote their drink at the event. A few months after the launch, the company undertook a survey to see where young people had heard about the drink. Here are the results:

• Traditional Adverts – 24.4%
• Social Media – 17.3%
• Freshers Festival – 56.7%

The cost of the advertising efforts: more than £1 million. The cost of attending Freshers Festival: a few thousand pounds. The event took up less than 0.3% of their advertising budget, but provided over 50% of brand awareness for their new product amongst the students they surveyed. Evidently, Freshers Festival works!

But don’t just listen to us, listen to what our previous clients have to say:

Interested in getting involved in any of our events in 2021? Feel free to make an enquiry on our website and we will get back to you with more information!