In the lead up to Easter, Butlins Skegness hosted the 2022 return of Spring Harvest! A five day Christian-based holiday with worship groups, fun afternoon activities and live music!

In the last two years, Spring Harvest was restricted to online celebrations due to the disruptions of COVID 19. I had the chance to go and experience the excitement of this year’s physical return of Spring Harvest. I had never been before but as soon as I arrived the community of Christians from all over Britain flooded the Sky Pavilion. After two years of closed churches and disrupted faiths all over the world, it was so inspiring to see so many people here to worship together at Spring Harvest!

In the Sky Pavilion, crowds gathered at the tens of stalls decorating the whole space. The community atmosphere stayed with the friendly stall-holders; their independent Christian businesses selling hand-crafted wares from printed t-shirts with personalised messages, to glass and silver jewellery. There was an incredible library of books in the centre! To help charities there were charity stalls all around too.

In the morning there was optional worship groups all over the Butlin’s site and each room had tv access so you could even watch the services online. This weeks Bible teachings followed Nehemiah and in every age group the story was the same but adapted to suit each audience so families could worship the same message together afterwards.

During the afternoon, there was a range of exciting activities to enjoy! The Billy Butlin’s Fairground had the magical Carousel (Gallopers), the Trabant and spectacular Swing-Chairs. There were arcades, adventure golf, go-karts and so much more! I loved the beach the most. The sand at Skegness was glistening golden and soft-between the toes, compared to the rough pebble beaches I had been to, and I could hop back any time since Butlin’s was on-top of the seaside.

Me and my friends spent our free-time in the incredible pool! The pool had three waterslides including a red slide which shoots you at high speed and a boat flume. We spent most our time racing on the rapids which was jam packed every day!

The children’s group was G.I.F.T (God’s International Fix-It Team) who performed live shows every day for children with interactive songs, dances and stories, while teaching them about the Bible.

On the centre stage, throughout the day, services were live streamed and there was live preaching’s for the adults. In the afternoon, there were also seminars the adults could attend.

In the youth group the festival atmosphere was amazing! Throughout the week there was a band who played Christian songs with a modern interpretation. The hosts were fun and engaging too! There were even crafts and a relaxation area with comfy bean-bags. Each evening had guest comedians and singers come in and perform an extract of their show they would be performing later that night.

Kate, 17, who attended the youth group spoke “Spring Harvest was so much fun and I made a group of new friends. I never thought I would enjoy it but I’m really glad my mum took me, the beach was so sunny!”

Looking forward to Spring Harvest 2023!