Kettering, Friday, 31 October 2025.
Organisers confirmed the UK Theme Park Awards will take place at Wicksteed Park in 2025, signalling a shift toward a more experiential format. Held on Thursday, the ceremony pairs operator-led judging — a nine-strong panel of experts — with public voting that opened on Monday and closed on Monday, creating a hybrid scoring model that privileges operational metrics, guest-experience technology and safety standards. New categories such as Best Use of IP, Best Queue Line Experience and Best Integration of Technology signal where procurement and product roadmaps will focus. For operators and suppliers the event is a timely benchmarking and B2B platform ahead of peak buying cycles: expect targeted launches, sponsorship activations and shortlist criteria tied to measurable operational outcomes. Regional hosting at Wicksteed underscores appetite for hybrid conference-and-showcase venues. Retail and F&B suppliers should read shortlist trends as indicators of procurement priorities and partnership opportunities for the coming 12–18 months.
Organisers confirmed the UK Theme Park Awards will take place at Wicksteed Park in Kettering for the 2025 edition, marking the ceremony’s first outing at the venue and a deliberate pivot toward a more experiential, industry-facing format that pairs an awards presentation with livestreamed content and onsite activations [1][3]. The ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, 18 September and will be produced by TAG Live with an official livestream, underscoring the organiser’s intent to create a hybrid conference-and-showcase environment for operators, suppliers and service partners [1]. Wicksteed Park’s long operating history and mixed offering of rides, gardens and event spaces is positioned by organisers as part of the appeal for staging an industry event that blends showcase space with conference capability [1][3].
Judging model and new categories
The awards will use a hybrid scoring model that combines public voting with expert judges’ scoring: public voting opened on Monday, 21 July and closed on Monday, 1 September, while the judges’ panel — a nine-strong group of industry experts — provides operator-led evaluation across the shortlists [2]. The 2025 awards introduce categories signalling a sharper focus on technical and operational considerations, including Best Use of IP in an Attraction, Best Queue Line Experience or Pre-Show, and Best Integration of Technology in a Guest Experience; these additions indicate an explicit emphasis on guest-experience technologies and design elements that intersect with procurement decisions [2].
Who’s judging — industry expertise on the panel
The judging panel draws from a cross-section of industry practitioners and specialists: judges include the founder of ThemeParks-UK.com, senior attraction-technology executives, association leadership and editorial specialists — specifically Lawrence Roots, Dawn Foote, Mark Locker, Paul Kelly (BALPPA), Lauren Heath-Jones (Planet Attractions), Andy Hine MBE, Scott Bickerton, Chris Belivin-Bailey and John Fosbrook — a lineup that privileges operational insight alongside experience in digital and guest-experience technologies [2]. That operator-and-supplier mix signals that criteria may weight demonstrable operational outcomes and technology integration as judged by peers and sector experts [2].
Practical implications for operators and suppliers
For park operators and suppliers, the move to Wicksteed and the new shortlist categories create a concentrated B2B environment ahead of peak procurement windows: organisers and partners expect the event to serve as a timely benchmarking platform for product launches, sponsorship visibility and targeted supplier outreach to park decision‑makers [1][2][3]. The new categories — particularly those rewarding queue-line experience and technology integration — should push procurement roadmaps toward solutions that demonstrate measurable guest-flow improvements, operational resilience and seamless content/IP integration, all of which are central to shortlist criteria [2].
Shortlist themes point toward where purchasing decisions may move in the next 12–18 months: investments in integrated guest technology (mobile engagement, virtual queuing, show-control integration), IP-based experiences and pre-show/queue design are likely to gain priority among operators seeking both award recognition and measurable performance gains [2][3]. Suppliers should treat shortlist inclusion as an early signal of procurement demand — for example, products that demonstrably reduce queue dwell time or that enable licensed-IP guest experiences will be directly relevant to the recently added categories [2].
Regional hosting: Wicksteed as a strategic choice
Selecting Wicksteed Park — the UK mainland’s oldest continuously operating theme park, open since 1921 — highlights the organisers’ appetite for regional venues capable of delivering a combined conference, showcase and livestream production footprint rather than a strictly metropolitan awards gala; this aligns with broader industry interest in decentralised, experiential events that bring suppliers to operators in park environments [1][3]. The regional setting also creates opportunities for on-site demonstrations and closer inspection of products in a real-world attractions context, which can be especially valuable for F&B, retail and guest‑flow technology suppliers [1][3].
Parallel sector developments to watch
Major park capital projects announced elsewhere in the UK exemplify the development trends likely to shape award submissions and procurement priorities: Paultons Park, recently highlighted in national coverage, is committing to a £12 million expansion that will add a Viking-themed land called Valgard with two new thrill rides (including an inverting coaster named Drakon and a 12-metre swing called Vild Swing), plus a themed restaurant and play provision; the scale and nature of that investment illustrate how family parks are balancing high-capacity, IP-anchored guest experiences with diversified food-and-beverage and play offerings — exactly the sort of integrated projects that will feature in award shortlists and supplier pitches [4][5][6].
What operators and suppliers should prepare now
Operators and suppliers aiming to capitalise on the Wicksteed-hosted awards should tailor submissions and activations to measurable operational outcomes and guest-experience metrics, document ROI and guest-feedback data, and prepare on-site demonstration plans that translate technical claims into observable performance [2][3]. Given the hybrid public‑and-expert voting model, combining consumer-facing storylines (for the public vote) with technical dossiers and operational case studies (for the judges) will strengthen entries and sponsorship pitches [2]. [alert! ‘Public voting metrics and the precise weighting between public and judges’ scores are not specified in the source material and therefore the exact influence of each on final results cannot be stated with certainty’] [2].
Event timing and commercial calendars
With public voting scheduled to run from Monday, 21 July to Monday, 1 September and the ceremony set for Thursday, 18 September, the awards sit immediately ahead of the autumn procurement and planning season for many operators — a timing that makes the event a strategic platform for autumn and winter product launches, partnership negotiations and procurement planning cycles [2][1]. [alert! ‘Specific procurement calendars vary by operator and exact ‘peak procurement cycles’ are not detailed in the cited sources; this description reflects industry timing logic rather than documented schedules’] [GPT].
How to read the awards as a leading indicator
Shortlist composition and winners have historically been used by suppliers and industry analysts as leading indicators of changing procurement priorities — when categories explicitly reward technology integration and IP use, budgets and requests-for-proposal language tend to follow, directing investment toward integrated systems, content partnerships and guest-flow optimisation solutions [2][3]. Stakeholders tracking product roadmaps, sponsorship opportunities and partnership deals should therefore monitor the shortlist announcements and the judges’ commentary for concrete signals on measurable criteria and evidentiary expectations for future submissions [2][3].
Bronnen