Kettering, Thursday, 4 September 2025.
Retail and attractions professionals should note that the 2025 UK Theme Park Awards will be staged at Wicksteed Park on Thursday 18 September, combining public nominations and a nine‑member expert jury to boost visibility for regional operators. Nominations drew more than 14,000 entries and public voting opened on Monday in July before closing last Monday, signalling strong consumer engagement. New categories—such as Best Use of IP, Best Queue Line Experience or Pre‑Show, and Best Integration of Technology—create clearer benchmarking and PR opportunities for suppliers and experience teams. Hosts Naomi Wilkinson and Dave Payne and a TAG Live livestreaming programme promise reach beyond the ballroom. For retailers, the shift outside metropolitan conference hubs suggests potential for destination marketing, local supply‑chain activation and footfall‑led commercial leads tied to award exposure. Expect networking that generates commercial conversations as much as trophies; shortlist and winner lists will offer practical benchmarking data to inform merchandising, guest flow solutions and tech partnerships.
Wicksteed Park confirmed as 2025 host and what that signals
Organisers have confirmed Wicksteed Park in Kettering will host the UK Theme Park Awards on Thursday 18 September, marking the ceremony’s first outing to the century‑old attraction and signaling a deliberate move away from metropolitan conference hubs to a regional, attraction‑centred venue [1]. Wicksteed—opened in 1921 and described as the UK mainland’s oldest continually operating theme park, with more than 25 rides alongside gardens and a nature reserve—provides a different operational and marketing context to the hotel‑ballroom model often used for trade events, which has implications for local supply‑chain activation and destination marketing for retailers and suppliers looking to link awards exposure to on‑site commercial opportunity [1].
Nominations for the 2025 awards opened to the public and organisers reported more than 14,000 submissions within the opening week, an early indicator of consumer engagement that organisers say mirrors strong interaction in previous years [3]. The formal public voting phase followed the nomination period: public voting opened on Monday 21 July and closed on Monday 1 September, creating a clearly defined consumer‑facing timeline that operators and suppliers can use to plan PR and promotional windows tied to shortlist and winner announcements [2][3].
Judging structure and the combined public‑plus‑expert model
Winners will be determined by a hybrid process combining public voting with expert judges’ scoring—this year’s independent panel comprises nine industry professionals drawn from a cross‑section of the attractions sector, including founders, CEOs and trade association leaders—an approach designed to balance popular appeal with sector credibility and to increase visibility for smaller regional parks that may perform strongly in public polls while still facing expert scrutiny on operational and design criteria [2].
New categories and what they mean for suppliers and experience teams
Organisers added several new categories for 2025—Best Use of IP in an Attraction, Best Queue Line Experience or Pre‑Show, and Best Integration of Technology in a Guest Experience—explicitly widening the awards’ remit to recognise digital, creative and operational interventions and giving suppliers clearer benchmarking categories for product development, storytelling partnerships and technology integration case studies [2][3]. These category changes create targeted PR hooks for vendors and operators to showcase proof points—such as IP licensing strategies, preshow design work, or guest‑facing tech deployments—during the awards cycle [2][3].
Event production, reach and the profile boost for finalists
The awards ceremony will be presented by Naomi Wilkinson and Dave Payne and produced for broadcast by TAG Live, with an official livestream planned—elements that extend the event’s reach beyond the ballroom and provide additional digital exposure opportunities for nominees, sponsors and suppliers seeking national visibility without the travel‑hub trade show environment [1]. Media‑facing hosts and a livestream amplify the potential PR value of shortlists and winners, generating shareable content and third‑party coverage that suppliers can leverage in sales and partnership conversations [1].
Practical takeaways for retailers, operators and the local supply chain
For retail and operations teams, staging the awards at a working park like Wicksteed shifts the emphasis toward destination and on‑site commercial narratives: local supply chains can be activated for event logistics and hospitality, and shortlisted operators should expect enquiries linked to merchandising, guest‑flow solutions and experience technology as other parks benchmark winners to inform procurement and partnership decisions [1][3]. The hybrid voting model and the public nominations cycle also provide measurable consumer engagement data—useful for merchandising and marketing teams planning follow‑up campaigns tied to shortlist or winner status [2][3].
Context from recent award cycles and industry momentum
The awards’ upward profile is evident in past engagement metrics referenced by organisers: the 2024 campaign saw more than 360,000 votes cast and resulted in Thorpe Park being named Theme Park of the Year following the launch of its Hyperia rollercoaster—context that demonstrates how award exposure can dovetail with product launches to amplify media attention and commercial momentum for operators and their suppliers [3]. [alert! ‘Direct percentage comparisons between nomination counts and total vote figures are not meaningful without confirming that the data sets measure equivalent actions (nominations vs votes) and are therefore not computed here’] [3].
Bronnen