After successful involvement together as Advance joining in with Wildfires 2022 and 2023, we are joining Wildfires over August bank holiday weekend 23-26 August 2024, at Wiston Estate!
Wildfires 2024 is going to work really well for S&L Advance churches and people, to help us build identity, unity and vision for what God is doing among us. We will be planning a programme of village events, to complement the wider programme.
For more on why we are going, please read the FAQ below.
If you want to help with the Advance village email wildfires@advancechurches.uk
Contributing not just consuming
We’ve been talking with the Wildfires team about how to play our part in making the event thrive – going as contributors not just consumers. Having a lot of experience in running our own events, we’re agreed to lead a team of volunteers to help manage the public and campsite areas of site during the event. This will be co-led by Pete and Antionia (Builth Wells), Moses (Oxford) and Phil (Abingdon).
Find out more? Email wildfires@advancechurches.uk
For general info about volunteering visit wildfiresfestival.com/volunteer
Advance Youth
Youth may arrange to attend with their own family, or another family as agreed with their parents. The Advance youth team will be around onsite too, and will plan some activities for Advance youth.
Booking
Important: Please look out for the “Salt & Light” options when you book. As we’ve seen in previous years, if you book as a general camper and then move to our village on arrival, we don’t get allocated enough space to host you well! (If your specific church isn’t listed please type it where it says ‘Please state here’.)
If you have specific needs, please read the FAQ below.
If you have queries about Advance at Wildfires, email wildfires@advancechurches.uk (Rachel Gallant, Abingdon)
FAQs
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After 2023 we fed back to the organisers, as did all the other church groups on site. You will be delighted that all of our feedback has been heard, and responded to very positively.
• The event has moved away from May half term, which was problematic for families with exam students, and because of uncertain weather.
• The event will be cheaper for many people, especially families (for which it will be substantially cheaper than 2023). There are options for discounted tickets for those in financial need. And there are lots of opportunities to volunteer and so get a free ticket while enjoying serving.
• We will have a larger village hub supplied free of charge by the organisers.
• Camping will be much closer to the car park, making setup/deset much easier, while maintaining the safety of a car-free site.
• Caravans and trailer tents will be intermingled among the tents on each village, and there will be electrical hookup areas within each village. UPDATE 12 MARCH: Sadly, the organisers have infomed us this is no longer possible, with caravans now in a dedicated area, as in previous years. We are very sorry for this abrupt change.
• Organisers are making plans to substantially improve the toilet provision.
• The field of fun (which had problems in 2023, partly due to weather) will actually be fun in 2024!!
• Our Advance leadership will be engaging more with Wildfires' leadership, so that it feels different: an event we are contributing to rather than just attending as consumers!
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Yes! If you want to camp next to other friends on the Advance village, just email wildfires@advancechurches.uk and we will do our best, when arranging the pitches, to include your request alongside other constraints (e.g. requirement for accessibility or electrical hookup)
Can I camp with friends from non-Advance churches? Yes, but they will need to book as part of the Advance group when they book.
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If you have specific needs for a member of your party, such as special needs that we should be aware of; you need an electrical hookup for medical devices; you need to be close to a path, or a toilet - please email wildfires@advancechurches.uk
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Wildfires is very like our own previous summer camps, with worship, teaching, prayer and children and youth activities. Some details of camping are different. The site is entirely car-free, for safety reasons.
New for 2024, caravans will on a the same site, among the tents. People from the same group (for us that will be Advance) will camp/caravan together in a 'village' area, within which we will have a 'village hub' (marquee).
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We last camped together as S&L Advance in summer 2019 for ‘Supernatural Advance’. We love gathering together in this way, in a festival/camping environment, to allow us to connect relationally, to worship God together and to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
However, with all the uncertainties of the pandemic and rising costs, it has become clear than running our own event is not possible at a level of provision and price that works.
After attending Wildfires 2022 and 2023, seeing that it had been a great success, with many personal testimonies and an overflow of spiritual life into our churches, the Advance Team have decided to develop the connection with the Wildfires event and go again in 2024.
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