Tag: London Calling 2023

Geocoins, London Calling 2023

This… was London Calling

Brian

London Calling 2023 has come and gone, and we had a lot of fun. The side events have now been auto-archived, and the main event will auto-archive shortly. We’re still getting a trickle of attended logs coming through, but it’s decreased to a couple a week at this point so we thought it was worthwhile posting some further updates.

Firstly, we had a write-up on the Geocaching.com official blog. A massive thank you to Matt, who was the first Groundspeak Lackey to be able to attend a London Calling Mega. The write-up was totally unexpected, and we were over the moon to get even a mention let alone an article. If you’ve not seen it, check it out here: https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2023/05/london-calling-2023-recap/

We recently posted an announcement on the Mega listing about some stats, but it’s worth re-iterating them here.

  • LC23: The Game is Afoot (image above) launched our event on Friday evening. Some 330 caching accounts have posted attended logs, making it a very respectable 22nd most-attended regular event ever to be held in the UK.
  • London Calling 2023 was held during the day on Saturday and was our main Mega event itself. At the time of writing, this has had 992 attended logs from caching accounts. That means that London Calling 2023 was the fourth most well-attended Mega in the UK ever. It is remarkable when you remember that the biggest Megas in the UK are generally the roving Official UK Megas – and until LC23, the biggest numbers pulled by a different Mega was The Halloween Mega 2014 with 689 attended logs. It also meant that LC23 was the biggest event in the UK for five years, although obviously, that is over the pandemic era so take that as you will.
  • LC23: The Marylebone Mystery was our Saturday evening event. This had a remarkable number of attendees, way more than we could have anticipated and we were so glad we held it at the Mega venue itself. This was the most well-attended regular mega event ever to be held in the UK, with some 644 caching accounts posting attended logs. To give it some context, this would have qualified as a Mega based on numbers alone, and had more attendees than London Calling 2021.
  • LC23: Wombling Free was our Sunday morning CiTO. Again, remarkable numbers and the position of this one may yet change as we currently have 223 attended logs which puts us in third place overall in the list of biggest CiTOs ever in the UK. However, second place is Gaydon Garbage Grab! (a side event of the 2018 West Midlands Mega) which has 225 attended logs. So we may yet sneak past that if we get three more late logs.

All supporter packs (except one which we were asked to hold for a couple of weeks) have been sent out to those who couldn’t make it or forgot to grab them on the day. We will be relaunching our online store in a couple of weeks with a very special new item. In conjunction with this year’s Official UK Mega in Milton Keynes, we have our very own special variant of their cow coin – called London Mooing.

That’ll be added to the store upon relaunch, although we will be giving a countdown here and on socials before that happens as we suspect some collectors may be waiting on them. There are only 25 to be had, so if you want one be fast when it happens. The coin itself comes in the colours of our logo – red, white and blue. The blue itself is transparent enamel, so you get some detail coming through especially when you hold it to the light, and the white part of it is glow in the dark.

At the same time, we will also be adding two auctions to the site. The first is for one of our limited-edition volunteer coins. These were handed out to all of those wearing the grey t-shirts on the day with our logo. The second will be our ultra-limited edition Sheerluck coins. These were only available if you won a trackable through our Sheerluck adventure lab at London Calling 2023 but we have a couple left, so we’re making it available here as fundraising for London Calling 2025.

The volunteer edition (above) comes in a black nickel finish, with a filled transparent map logo in the centre of the magnifying glass. The London Calling logo itself is in glitter enamel. This was a limited edition of 80 and has never been on sale before.

The Sheerluck edition (below) comes in an antique bronze finish, with a matching bronze map logo fill and the London Calling logo is in black and white monochrome. This was a limited edition of just 15, our shortest run of any coin ever. Again, these have never been on sale before.

So look out for those towards the end of the month. Further notices will go out ahead of the listings going live so no one should miss out on these and our cow coin.

London Calling 2023

Closing Statement from our Chair

Brian

A huge thank you to everyone who attended London Calling 2023 and the side events over the weekend. It was fantastic to be outside on the way to venues and pass people in London Calling merchandise in the wild! I never fail to get a kick out of seeing one of our t-shirts being worn by someone at another event.

I few thank yous first. I would like to thank the wonderful staff at St Mary’s – what a fabulous venue. A special thanks to the committee: -Krop- for once again doing amazing things with lab caches. I used to dabble with electronics, but you are on another level. Hedgepiglet for organising our very own army of volunteers seamlessly and keeping on top of issues as they came up on the day. Minion&Myles for running merchandise flawlessly, staying positive and being far more organised than I’ll ever be. Goldpot, who was our greeter-in-chief, putting everyone in a good mood as they arrived and keeping everyone entertained in the queue. bunny-summers, without who we would have no coverage of the event and for generally being a voice of sanity. And last but not least TurnyT for his great ideas, not least the logbooks for this year’s event which everyone absolutely adored.

I mentioned the “army” – I have to give thanks to our wonderful volunteers. No doubt you were probably all pleased not to have the bright yellow shirts this year, but that didn’t dampen your visibility and enthusiasm. Without our wonderful volunteers giving up their time to support this event, many of whom volunteered for a second Mega in a row, it would not be possible to run London Calling at all.

A massive thanks to our fellow vendors, the GAGB and the Mega Committees for Milton Keynes 2023, South East 2024 and Severn 2025. Be sure that we’ll be attending as many of those events as possible for our future event endeavours. Further special thanks go to Pinpoint Magazine who produced this year’s wonderful event brochure. A final special thanks goes to Matt Quint who travelled over from Groundspeak in Seattle especially to attend this event and support us.

Consider the message on the back of this year’s event brochure to be the announcement, but just to repeat it here: See you at London Calling 2025!

London Calling 2023

One Day To Go!

Brian

At the time of posting, it’s less than four hours until the first side event for London Calling 2023 begins. Signal the Frog is in town. The outside adventure lab caches have gone live, and the additional Wherigo and Mystery caches already had their FTFs.

We’ll probably go quiet on the website over the weekend as we’ll be busy dealing with people in person. We have got plans to keep the Facebook page updated with news/announcements and general goings on. So if you’ve not followed us there, then please do: https://www.facebook.com/LondonCallingMega/

Looking forward to seeing you all, starting in a few short hours.

– The London Calling Mega Committee

London Calling 2023

Launching our Adventure Labs

Brian

I’m sure anyone who attended London Calling 2021 can remember our adventure labs. We’ve had some amazing compliments on our clever temporary indoor adventure labs which included the use of magic wands, gold pots, QR cubes, magic glasses and of course Big Ben. Of course, we also cannot forget the outdoor lab cache trail which takes in many of the highlights of London as it snakes its way from Westminster to Tower Bridge and back.

We are once again putting out a series of outdoor adventure labs, which will be able to remain out, as well as temporary adventure labs within the Mega venue itself which will only be available for completion on 29th April.

Some attendees will want to create .gpx files to enable them to find the adventure labs. As such, we are launching our outdoor lab caches slightly ahead of the Mega on the morning of Friday 28th April. All of these sets will be staying out. These will include the following:

  • Four sets of 10 adventure labs around the Marylebone area
  • Six sets of 5 adventure labs around the Wimbledon Common area
  • One set of 5 adventure labs in the City of London

The set of 10 adventure labs which will be available during London Calling 2023 will be going live that morning prior to Platinum Pack entry at 10:30 am. The set of 10 adventure labs going out during LC23: The Marylebone Mystery will be going live just prior to readmission to the venue at 6 pm. Both of these sets are temporary, and so will only be available until Saturday 6th May for logging purposes, at which point they will be shut down and will no longer be visible on the Adventure Labs app.

London Calling 2023

A Guide to a London Calling Icon Run

Brian

You may or may not be familiar with a concept of a geocaching “icon run”. This is where you attempt to find as many different types of caches in a single day. While this was probably always popular, the addition of Project-GC’s “Diverse Cacher” badge in the badgegen section of the profiles there has certainly increased awareness.

In order to get the highest ranked “Diverse Cacher” badge, you need to find 11 different icons in a day. You can of course get more than that, and for the last couple of years, it was easier with Community Celebration events being around. But what’s better than trying to do that at a Mega – somewhere where you’ll immediately get an unusual icon from attending the Mega itself. So here’s our guide to 11 icons in a day in order to get you that Diamond badge on Project-GC, plus a couple extra at the end.

  1. Mega – London Calling 2023 (GC9MAXX).
  2. Event – LC23: The Marylebone Mystery (GCA2DMX) – Held after the Mega at the same venue from 6 pm to 9 pm.
  3. Adventure Lab – There are so many of these around in London that you can’t miss them. Let alone the 10 labs that will be available during London Calling 2023 and a further 10 available during The Marylebone Mystery.
  4. Traditional – Trafalgar Square (GC5A7DW) – nearly 3000 favourite points, and wasn’t available during the last Mega due to some works in the area.
  5. Mystery/Puzzle – There will be a new jigidi-based mystery cache going live just prior to the Mega near the venue.
  6. Multi – There will be a new Multi going live just prior to the Mega near the venue.
  7. Earthcache – Nelson’s Column (GC4X7V2) – if you’re going to find Trafalgar Square then you might as well do this and GC285PA while you’re there. However, in case you found them during London Calling 2021, this is the closest Earthcache published after the previous Mega: Sea Urchin… Westminster (GC9QBFN).
  8. Letterbox Hybrid – Space Invader (NOT 24/7. TB Hotel. High FP%!) (GC7QEJJ) – A favourite, and the final is very much a caching experience and is worth the detour. Just note the opening times on the cache page.
  9. Wherigo – There will be a new Wherigo going live just prior to the Mega near the venue.
  10. Virtual – The name is Sherlock Holmes and the address is … (GC891DN) – How could we recommend any other virtual given the theme? However, this one has been out since 2019, so in case you already did it, try Paddington Bear & Mr Bean (Leicester Square) (GC9P505) – as that’s only been out since February this year.
  11. Webcam – London – Beatles Abbey Road (GC6F12) – Of course.
  12. Locationless – Discovered while geocaching – Locationless Cache (GC9FAVE) – the only locationless cache currently available.
  13. Cache in Trash Out – Beach Clean Up (GCA3N4A) – This one for the serious icon runners, as you’ll need to start your day on the south cost in Brighton before heading back to London for the Mega. It’s between 8 am and 9 am.

Of course, this is only a selection of what London has to offer. If you’ve never been to London before and you want to do an icon run then concentrating on the area around the Abbey Road Webcam, the Mega venue and Trafalgar Square will net you the most icons in the least amount of time. Abbey Road is a short journey away for a couple of stops on the Jubilee line from Baker Street station to St John’s Wood station, and Trafalgar Square can be easily reached (again from Baker Street station) via the Bakerloo line to Charing Cross station.

If you fancy that Brighton trip, return off-peak tickets are from £14.50 as long as you buy in advance. Trains depart from London Bridge and Victoria Station. When coming back, we recommend coming via London Bridge as you’ll be able to change for the Jubilee line on the Underground and go straight to Baker Street direct.

Let us know in the comments how many you’re aiming to get, and how many you achieved!

London Calling 2023

Less Than a Month to Go!

Brian

There’s now just less than a month to go until London Calling 2023. The organisation is being finalised, and volunteers have been contacted. So without further ado we have a few things to announce as these seem to be our frequently asked questions at the moment:

  • Tickets will remain on sale for £5 for adults on our online store here until 19th April. At that point the entire store will be closed until after the Mega so we can sort out the preorders. They will be on sale on the day as well for £10 for adults. So buy your ticket early and get it for half the price.
  • Children’s tickets (under the age of 15) will remain free throughout.
  • We have ordered some additional hoodies and t-shirts, so if you didn’t manage to pre-order one in advance, then they will be on sale on the day.
  • We will also have some new merchandise going on sale on Mega Day – new patches and keyrings.
  • For those that don’t want to come into the vendor hall, see Signal, do the gadget labs etc – there will be an outdoor logbook at the reception desk. For those coming in, there’s a larger logbook inside but you can sign both if you really want.
  • We have several geocaches going out just prior to the Mega. Not huge numbers as there are loads already in London, but hopefully the ones going out should make it easier for the icon hunters.
  • We also have quite a lot of outdoor adventure labs going out. These will be permanent features of the geocaching game board in London. There will be a new set going out to coincide with our Friday evening event near St Pauls, and several new sets to coincide with the CiTO event on Wimbledon Common. Thanks to the cachers who kindly donated their spare sets of adventure lab credits to make this happen.
  • There will of course be a further 30 adventure labs being placed outdoors from the Mega account.
  • On the day, don’t forget we have two floors – if you can’t find something on the ground floor, then you’re too high! Go downstairs!
  • There is wheelchair access to both floors.
  • Remember last time around we had our volunteers in those bright yellow t-shirts? This time around they’re in grey – although they do have “Volunteer” in yellow letters across the front of them. Although we did try for neon orange. Maybe next time.
  • We’ve not got any internal catering this time – but we are just off Crawford Street, which has a range of independent cafes and restaurants. Boxcar Cafe and Deli is right outside and has seating on the square if it doesn’t rain. There’s also the Duke of Wellington pub just opposite the square in front of the church, as well as the Royal Oak on the corner of York Street and Enford Street. You’ll find loads of chain coffee shops and restaurants if you walk east to Baker Street or west to Edgware Road.
London Calling 2023

Tickets and Supporters Packs Are Now On Sale!

Brian
Attendees at London Calling 2021

We’re pleased to say that the tickets and supporters packs for London Calling 2023 launched last Saturday at the Official UK Mega in the West Midlands. We’re following a very similar format to London Calling 2021 and retaining the same ticket pricing.

Tickets, which will enable entry to the venue and access to the vendors, log book, trackable table and the on-site adventure lab caches, will be £5 in advance, and £10 at the door for adults. They are available here: Adult Ticket – London Calling 2023

Children under the age of 15 are able to enter for free, as long as they are accompanied by an adult. We would ask, however, just for number tracking, if you could “purchase” a free child’s ticket here: Child Ticket – London Calling 2023

Supporters Packs come in three levels, Bronze, Silver and Platinum.

Bronze Packs are £15, and contain the bronze version of the event geocoin (not the Sherlock Holmes/Signal the Frog geocoin) as well as three out of the set of five of the wood coins. Available here: Bronze Supporters Pack

Silver Packs are £45, and contain the bronze and silver versions of the event geocoin (not the Sherlock Holmes/Signal the Frog geocoin), four out of the set of five of the wood coins, a t-shirt exclusive to the silver/platinum packs and our first pathtag. Available here: Silver Supporters Pack

Platinum Packs are £75, and contain the bronze, silver and platinum versions of the event geocoin (not the Sherlock Holmes/Signal the Frog geocoin). Additionally, the platinum version of the event geocoin will not be on sale individually. Also included is the full set of five wood coins, a t-shirt exclusive to the silver/platinum packs, our first pathtag, a platinum pack exclusive extag/aardtag, a platinum pack exclusive embroidered beanie hat and of course, 30 minutes early access to the venue from 10:30am onwards. Available here: Platinum Supporters Pack

London Calling 2023

The London Calling 2023 Listing Is Live!

Brian

We’re pleased to announce that the Geocaching.com listing for London Calling 2023 is now live, and you can log your Will Attends now by clicking on the button below.

Log Your Will Attend Here

We’re also able to highlight that we can already announce two of the side events over the next May Day bank holiday weekend – we have our Saturday evening event which will also take place at St Mary’s in Marylebone, and then the Sunday morning Cache in Trash Out (CiTO) event which will be held once again on Wimbledon Common. These will be published six months prior to the Mega, so expect to see these event listings go up around the end of October.

We are having a new round of Signal Coins produced, and these will be ready prior to Piratemania this year. We’ll make sure to have the option to collect these at both this summer’s Mega-events (normal shipping options, including international shipping, will be available too).

Tickets for London Calling 2023 will be £5 for adults as before; these and the supporter’s packs will be up on the online store next weekend.

Keep an eye out for further news on side events that’ll be springing up both in London and around the world.

See you at London Calling 2023. Less than a year to go!!!

London Calling 2023

Announcing The London Calling 2023 Launch Event

Brian

We are pleased at London Calling to announce the Community Celebration launch event for our next big event coming next year. The launch is taking place on Saturday 19th March, between 1 pm and 3 pm. This will be at the Metropolitan Bar, which is adjacent to the entrance of Baker Street station and right next to the Sherlock Holmes statue. The location is a popular haunt for London events, with many a monthly meet upheld there.

What are we announcing? Well firstly, we’ll be able to tell you all about our venue, two of the three side events and exactly when we’re going to be taking place. It’s all very exciting for us, and we’re really pleased to be able to bring you all this news.

So head on over to the Geocaching.com listing at https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC8Q9EV_london-calling-2023-the-launch to register your Will Attend. We look forward to seeing you there!

London Calling 2023

London Calling 2023 is coming!

Brian

It has been something often alluded to, but we are now in a position to announce that London Calling is indeed returning in 2023. There are few details to announce at present, other than we have a contract signed with a venue for both the main Mega event as well as the same location for an evening event on the Saturday too.

So what can you expect from London Calling 2023? All the things you loved about London Calling 2021, plus all-new activities to enjoy. We had a whole bunch of plans that were derailed by Covid, and we’ll be looking to use some of those at long last.

We’re awaiting the publication of a Community Celebration to take place in mid-March to officially launch our little event properly, and there we’ll announce both the new date and the new venue. The Geocaching.com listing can only go live up to a year in advance, but after we announce the date, you’ll know how long you have to wait for that.

For us, now the work continues on everything else to do with the Mega. So expect to see us at this year’s Piratemania and the UK Mega in the West Midlands with all-new London Calling 2023 merchandise, and popping up around the country (and the world perhaps) at other events.

For more information, keep an eye on our social media links, and the London Calling 2023 page here. If you’re a vendor or potential sponsor and would like to get in touch with us, you can do so via our contact form here.