To celebrate the 105th anniversary of the founding of The Not Forgotten in 1920, this summer and into Spring 2026 we will be coming to a region near you... Not just for one event or one day, but for a whole week of music, entertainment, challenge and fundraising events.
A range of spirit-lifting, confidence-boosting days of camaraderie that you'd expect from The Not Forgotten, all packed into five days in each of seven areas around the whole of the UK.
We'll be starting in June in the 'South and South West' region, followed by 'North West and Midlands'. In July we'll come to Wales, and 'South and South East'. In early September we'll round off the summer with a week in Scotland (followed by our traditional week of Drive In Concerts around the country).
In March 2026 we'll then bring the fun to the 'North East and Midlands' region, and finish off with a week in Northern Ireland in late March-early April 2026.
Exact venues and dates will be announced for the June Regional Connect Weeks this Wednesday 2nd April in the unveiling of our full Events Programme 2025-26. In the July, September and March Regional Connect Weeks some dates and venues are still tbc, but we will update them as soon as we can.
What can you expect when we 'hit' your area? The plan won't be exactly the same in every region as it depends on venues, dates and geography, but each week is likely to include a Garden Party (think a smaller boutique version of our Buckingham Palace garden party!) a Fun Fest, a Community Concert, a Fundraising Collection (in a local supermarket, station or community venue), concerts in local care homes to reach the most isolated and elderly, and a Challenge Event hiking, cycling or canoeing.
The Regional Connect Week events will go live on our website events portal at the same time as the rest of our 2025-26 events programme - this WEDNESDAY, 2nd APRIL. As with the rest of our events, our new website events portal allows TNF beneficiaries to register their desire to attend an event at the touch of a button. Once you have indicated your interest in attending you'll receive an email saying you're 'on our books' for it, and will hear in due course whether you are successful in your request. Our Regional Connect events should be able to accommodate almost everyone who applies, but please don't assume you are coming until you have had official email confirmation.
We have put a great deal of planning into covering as many parts of the UK as possible over the course of the year, trying to reach towns, cities and areas all over the regions. However we are a small team with a finite budget and sadly can't visit everywhere - much as we would genuinely love to.
If you can't spot your local area anywhere when the full list of venues is published, please don't despair.
Alongside our Regional Connect Events we will also be hosting our traditional Drive In Concerts in September, and our Christmas Lunches during December, as well as most of our annual favourite day trips, sporting outings and respite breaks. Our Drive Ins and Christmas Lunches in particular are being planned to cover those towns/areas not visited by the Regional Connect events...so hopefully you can make it to one of those later in the year.
We can't wait to welcome many hundreds of you along to all our Regional Connect events over the course of the year, and raise a toast to The Not Forgotten and Miss Marta Cunningham who founded us 105 years ago. We like to think she'd be looking down on these new events and feeling rather proud...
