The Big Swim is an annual event that celebrates International Women's Day. The sea-swimming community has become a space where women of every shape, size, and ability can move freely, laugh loudly, and just be themselves.
Why was The Big Swim created?
The Big Swim is an annual event hosted by PinkNicky’s Blog, which is held for wild swimmers on the South Coast in Brighton and Dorset.
It is the UK's biggest swim to celebrate International Women's Day.
We launched The Big Swim as a fun, community-driven event highlighting International Women’s Day, fostering inclusivity for swimmers, supporting environmental responsibility, and sparking collective action. We wanted our swimmers to do something positive.
We asked all our, 1000 women to take one action to support women in a cause, campaign or event close to their heart. The Big Swim began as a response to several interconnected issues and opportunities:
Uniting the South Coasts Sea Swimmers & Encouraging Women to try wild swimming:
Brighton and Dorset boast a vibrant community of sea swimmers, but we noticed a lack of a unified platform to bring them together.
We aimed to attract more women to wild swimming, recognising its benefits as a free, natural resource that can significantly improve mental and physical health. Wild swimming provides an inclusive and empowering way to connect with nature.
Raising Awareness for International Women’s Day
The Big Swim provides a platform to highlight and support International Women’s Day and inspires our swimmers to take one action for positive change.
Supporting Surfers Against Sewage (SAS):
The South Coast faces significant challenges with sewage pollution and plastic waste affecting our beaches and marine ecosystems.
Partnering with SAS as our event charity felt natural as they work tirelessly to address these issues in multiple ways, including: Community Engagement: including beach cleanups and educational talks in schools. Policy Advocacy: Campaigns such as the End Sewage Pollution Manifesto outline progressive policies they encourage political parties to adopt.
How did you understand what people wanted??
We took an active approach to finding out what people wanted from the event;
Engagement and Listening
We actively asked swimmers what they wanted, allowing their responses to guide the event planning. This direct feedback ensured the initiative addressed their needs and desires. We captured what resonated most with the community by identifying common themes like unity, celebration, fun, affordability, and charity support. A very strong theme was the support for Surfers Against Sewage and the need to swim to protect their mental health through swimming.
Leveraging Experience
We worked with a core group of the sea-swimming community to provide insight into what would excite and engage participants. Prior knowledge helped them recognise opportunities to align the event with broader interests, such as charity support and International Women's Day and becoming Ambassadors.
How did you promote your activities?
We sent out a statement of support to all swimmers, sponsors and partners from previous years to give us a starting point and galvanise support from the word go for 2026. We now have 1750 swimmers that have been involved over the last 3 years.
Our multi-faceted promotional approach ensured a broad reach, engaged diverse audiences, and created significant buzz around the event:
Feedback and Impact
Participation
- 2023: 250 swimmers participated
- 2024: 500 swimmers participated
- 2025: 1000 swimmers participated
In 2026, we are aiming to beat our record!
Up to 30 days following the event, we tracked #TheBigSwim stats:
Reach 731k
Interactions 4 k
Top 4 reels: 8,618, 6943, 4442 and 6061
This is from an account with approx. 2400 – which shows a tremendous amount of interaction from dedicated participants.
Testimonials:
Yesterday was fabulous! I got diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s at 38 last year, and sea swimming not only brings me joy but also helps my symptoms. I’m a bit unsteady sometimes, and the sea can be scary, but yesterday's group was joyful. Thank you.
Events like the International Women’s Day Swim in Brighton are not just about swimming; they are about community, empowerment, and connection. They provide a platform for women to unite, celebrate their achievements, and support one another in their journey. And for three generations of mermaids, it was an experience we will cherish for a lifetime
How Did You overcome barriers?
When launching The Big Swim, we encountered two significant challenges: costs and a lack of diversity. Here’s how we addressed these obstacles:
1. Costs
Covering essential expenses such as insurance and safety teams posed a financial hurdle.
Budget planning: We calculated the breakeven figure to ensure financial viability and set ticket prices accordingly.
Sponsorship: We created multiple sponsorship levels to appeal to various sponsors. Designed a comprehensive sponsorship package and sent it to local and national organisations on our wish list. Securing support from a mix of sponsors, ensuring stable funding. We added a low-budget option aimed at local female-owned businesses – this worked really well.
2. Lack of Diversity
While the event aimed to be inclusive, it became clear that the participant demographic was predominantly white women. This was highlighted when we reviewed the group photo.
Education: We listened to targeted podcasts and spoke to our ambassadors to better understand diversity challenges and opportunities in swimming.
Ambassadors: Recruited ambassadors who represent diverse groups. This is an ongoing process, so far we are working with: Deaf swimmers, LGBTQ+ community, London-based swimmers and a very unique group of professional mermaids.
Liaising with organisations like Active Sussex and Active Hampshire to connect with community groups.
Representation in Media: Made a conscious effort to showcase a diverse range of swimmers in our social media campaigns, promoting inclusion and visibility.
We still have a long way to go, but we have made a start.
What are you plans moving forward?
To continue, improve, and adapt our initiative moving forward, we have identified the following plans:
Phase 1: Increase the number of wheelchair and adaptive swimmers. In 2025, we welcomed our first wheelchair swimmer, Peyton Vella, who is now our very first Big Swim Ambassador.
Thanks to partnerships with the Sea Lanes, Brighton and Brighton Seafront Office, we will have access to three beach wheelchairs and accessible changing rooms in 2026.
Ambassadors like Peyton are leading the way in showing that The Big Swim truly belongs to everyone. We are contacting adaptive swimmer and inviting them to get involved.
Phase 2: Increase swimmers from Ethnic groups- now that phase 1 is underway, we need to begin identifying and contacting groups that would like to get involved.
Phase 3: We would not have been able to grow, without working with our partner businesses and organisations, key this year was Land and Wave who hosted the Poole Swim and Sea Lanes who hosted the Brighton Swim.
We have found they have helped us in so many ways apart from supporting the event, they have offered guidance, solutions, ideas, contacts and best of all, allies when you need support on the day. Running an event on your own is not a good idea!
Top Tip
The first year of any event is the hardest; after that, you already have a core of contacts to draw upon.
Give yourself a longer lead-in time to ensure you can manage all the elements of the events, eg insurance, marketing, PR and logistics. For The Big Swim we start planning 6 months in advance.
Add extra planning weeks to cope with the unexpected curve balls and family issues.
Create partnerships to help spread the load and tap into wider audiences.
Find a team of supporters that will help you spread the word online and in their local communities – don’t underestimate the power of word of mouth, personal recommendations and a link in a WhatsApp app group.
Always ensure you thank anyone who has helped you – either online and tag them or with a card and chocolate.
How does The Big Swim embody the action areas 'self-affirming' and 'social'?
The Big Sea Swim most closely embodies the SELF-AFFIRMING and SOCIAL action areas because it creates a powerful sense of personal joy and community connection that directly addresses the enjoyment gap.
You can see and hear the positivity in the air!
Our favourite moment of the event is when 100’s of women enter the sea, all whooping and laughing because of the cold; it is pure joy to see – if we could bottle it, we would be a millionaires!
Self-Affirming
The emphasis on fun, colour, and self-expression (e.g. the freedom to wear mermaid outfits, flags, and sparkles) allows individuals to embrace and celebrate their authentic selves. This reinforces a sense of personal worth and confidence. Our swimmers make a huge effort to dress up!
The event is a "safe place" for all bodies, where nobody is concerned with looking their best, supports self-acceptance and dismantles societal pressures—key to closing the enjoyment gap for many.
The collective laughter and shared delight in the cold water reflect a release from judgment or expectation, which is deeply affirming and freeing.
Social
The gathering of "your tribe" creates a supportive, inclusive environment. Being surrounded by others who share in the joy fosters unity and connection.
From the very noisy sea entry to the beach celebrations, the event’s design encourages communal experiences that enhance the collective joy of participants.
Without a doubt, the energy of this event is catching!