How to get involved
Discover the many ways you can be part of the Heritage Open Days community. No prior experience is necessary, and all our support is FREE!
Event entry criteria
Your event doesn’t need to be big or fancy or boast of famous connections (although we like those things too!), it just needs to meet these conditions:
1. Register with us by the final deadline
Heritage Open Days is a trademarked festival, ALL events must be registered with us.
2. Take place in England (or online!)
We are England's offer for European Heritage Days. If you're across a border then check out the other UK programmes run by different organisations.
3. FREE from entrance to exit
It is possible to raise money over the festival BUT admission to the main attraction of your event has to be free of charge. Running a free tour if visitors have to pay a site entrance fee doesn't count!
4. Offer something special
- Open a site/part of a site that isn’t usually open to the public.
- Launch a new online activity/event.
- Offer free entry to a usually charging site/activity.
- If your site is open free of charge all year round, then something out of the ordinary! Such as: have volunteer stewards on site to greet visitors and answer questions / run an activity / invite other groups to showcase their work – e.g. artists, choirs, local history societies.
5. Take place within the festival dates
The festival covers ten days in early September, and your event must occur at some point during this time. However, it doesn’t have to be open all day, every day - your event can just be a single pre-bookable tour or a one-off online event.
Choose your role
Organiser
Organisers register events.
- You will be our main contact for your event(s).
- These will be from one organisation, or a small group.
Nb. Some areas have a local Coordinator who supports promotion and registration - do check our Coordinator directory to see if you have one nearby! If so, and you don’t need to register events, you can join the national community as a Participant.
- Receive all our registration and resource emails.
- Access any archived events we have for your organisation.
- Access our support materials, from downloading templates to ordering bunting.
- Search the community for event ideas and contacts.
- Book onto training events.
Coordinator
Coordinators support other Organisers.
- You will work across multiple organisations OR be part of a national body.
- You will help promote events in your area and support organisers to connect.
- You will be our main contact for any event(s) you register, and may assist with registration for others.
- Receive all our registration and resource emails.
- Access any archived events we have for your organisation.
- Access the full range of our support materials, from downloading templates and ordering bunting to preview comms. schedules.
- Search the community for event ideas and contacts.
- Book onto all training events, including the annual Coordinators Assembly.
Participant
Participants assist with events.
- You will be a volunteer* OR an organiser within a locally coordinated hub.
- You do NOT register events and will not be our main contact for them.
*Please contact local sites directly about volunteering opportunities. You can also check our Coordinator directory for local hubs.
- Receive our key registration emails.
- Access a limited selection of our support materials.
- Book onto training events.
Nb. If you are going to register an event you need to join the community as an Organiser.
Take note
Festival safeguarding
We're committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive community. No matter your role, make sure you familiarise yourself with our safeguarding page and the code of conduct.
Changing your role
Your role in the community determines what resources you have access to and how we communicate with you. So if you're becoming more active in organising, or taking a step back from coordinating, do let us know so we can better support you.
Other UK programmes
Heritage Open Days only takes place in England. We are part of the wider European Heritage Days though and there are sister schemes across the UK:
- Northern Ireland: European Heritage Days - organised by the Dept. for Communities
- Scotland: Doors Open Days - organised by Scottish Civic Trust
- Wales: Open Doors - organised by Cadw
Give me an overview
Explore the key actions to take and resources available across the year.
