FAQs

A free, sculpture trail through the streets, parks and open spaces of Cheltenham and Gloucester, running from July – September 2025. It will feature painted Lion sculptures; 30+ big and 30+ small to raise funds for Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity, The Big Space Cancer Appeal.

Lions represent the courage needed to face cancer, as a patient and loved one. Lions work as a pride (family) to survive. They tenderly care for each other’s young, the elders and work together to find food.

It is a Wild in Art event brought to you by Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity.

We are really pleased to have the BID from Cheltenham and Gloucester as our presenting partners for the respective areas.

The Pride of Lions is all about coming together as one. Businesses, artists, local communities and schools can celebrate the character of the area and its cultural identity. This world-class, large-scale public event will:

• Provide a trail through Cheltenham and Gloucester centres, parks and open spaces.
• Thousands are encouraged to become a ‘tourist in their own county’ and discover or rediscover their community
• Increase awareness, footfall and visitor spend
• Engage local and regional professional artists
• Provide a unified platform for businesses and organisations to engage with their own communities and customers
• Create an education programme for schools, using creativity as a learning device
• Attract regional and national visitors to Cheltenham, Gloucester and the surrounding areas
• Showcase the creativity of Gloucestershire: its heritage, architecture and culture
• Provide community engagement, fun and excitement!

There are a wide range of sponsorship opportunities on offer. Each level provides a variety of benefits to suit your marketing, public relations and corporate social responsibility objectives.

For sponsorship enquiries please contact Karen Organ on karen.organ@nhs.net

For general enquiries please contact Carrie Smith on ghn-tr.lionsatlarge@nhs.net

• Fantastic PR opportunities
• Being aligned with a key event in Cheltenham and Gloucester that will have a lasting impact in 2025 and beyond
• The direct introduction of your brand to new customers through interaction with the trail
• Raising your brand awareness through interaction with the Lions at Large app and web pages
• Showcase and bring footfall to your business
• Opportunity for increased revenue with the app reward
• Providing business-to-business networking opportunities
• VIP invites to events and workshops associated with the trail
• Increasing brand awareness through long-term exposure (12 -18 months)
• Marketing opportunities through association with your own stories in media, online, and internal communications

Projects of this kind in similar-sized cities have demonstrated an uplift in visitor numbers, and increased spend, with people staying longer.

For example, in 2021, Worcester’s Big Parade created lots of fun, excitement, smiles and visitors to the city:

• 96% of Worcester visitors said the trail had inspired them to stay longer than usual in the city and almost half visited four times or more!
• On average they spent £27 during their visit, with 40% spending over £40 in a single trip.
• 72% said they explored parts of the city they wouldn’t normally visit
• 56%+ said they posted on social media before, during and after visiting and it was the most common way people heard about the trail
• 18,000+ paper trail maps were collected from outlets across the city
• 94% of sponsors felt that the trail helped to promote their business to those in and around Worcester
• 88% of sponsors believe Worcester’s Big Parade had a positive impact on their business

* WBP Evaluation Project carried out independently my MEL Research – August 2022.

All the large Lions will be sponsored by businesses. The little Lions will be paid for by local schools or community groups or, a company has kindly sponsored a cub for them. The trail is a full-cost recovery project and it is thanks to our partners and sponsors that it comes to Cheltenham and Gloucester.

Wild in Art is the leading producer of spectacular public art events that entertain, enrich, inform and leave a lasting legacy. It brings together businesses and creative sectors with schools and local communities through the creation of uniquely painted sculptures.

Since 2008 Wild in Art has animated cities across the world including Manchester, Sydney, Auckland, Cape Town and São Paulo, and created trails for the London 2012 Olympics, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Historic Royal Palaces and Penguin Random House.

Wild in Art events have:

• Enabled over £23.6m to be raised for charitable causes
• Injected £3.8m into local creative communities
• Engaged over 1 million young people in learning programmes
• Helped millions of people of all ages to experience art in non-traditional settings

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