Ordnance Survey invites you to have a Wild Night Out

Ordnance Survey (OS) has teamed up with Wild Night Out to launch this year’s national wild adventure. Taking place on Saturday 1 July, the ultimate day of adventure for Great Britain is designed to encourage people of all ages and abilities to use the night and day as an opportunity to get active and enjoy the outdoors.

Nick Giles, Ordnance Survey Leisure Managing Director, says: “We’re delighted to bring the GetOutside initiative and Wild Night Out together for a coordinated effort to create the ultimate day of adventure. We’re currently pulling together research on how adventurous a nation we are, and the early indications of this study are that the younger generation is much less adventurous in the great outdoors than their parents and older generations. Why is that? What has changed? We are committed to untangling this and reversing the trend.”

In 2015 OS founded the GetOutside initiative to urge people off the sofa, to ditch the car and GetOutside in the Great British outdoors. This came about after research commissioned by OS showed walking to be on the decline in Great Britain. The study revealed how a quarter of the British public won’t walk anywhere that takes over 15 minutes. Three quarters won’t walk to work. Almost 70% of people never walk to the shops. Only a third would ever do the school run on foot, and only around a third of us enjoy a weekend walk for pleasure.

Nick continues: “In recent weeks, there has been a huge amount of press coverage highlighting the importance of being active and the benefits of being outdoors. Wild Night Out is the perfect opportunity to make that happen. If one day in the calendar each year gets people who wouldn’t ordinarily think about being outdoors, outdoors, then hopefully they’ll start thinking about spending more of their time active outside. This would be better for us as individuals and as a nation. Ultimately, we want to make the outdoors an enjoyable, safe and accessible place for everyone. Whether it’s an extra walk with the dog, a visit to a national park or a local one, trying a new sport or simply camping in the back garden, there’s no excuse not to get out on July 1st. Fingers crossed we’ll also get some July summer sunshine on the day.”

Belinda Kirk, Founder of Wild Night Out, adds, “Getting outside makes us happier and healthier. It teaches us to take challenges, to appreciate our wild places and each other – and it’s fun. We are encouraging friends, families and groups across the country to enjoy an outdoor activity on Saturday 1st July 201 and raise money for two charities, Youth Adventure Trust and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, that work tirelessly to help more young people enjoy the outdoors. Whether you camp in your back garden, go for an evening hike, kayak or take part in multiple challenges over that date, we want as many people as possible to register and share their experiences.”