World Scout Jamboree

The World Scout Jamboree (French: Jamboree Scout Mondial) is a Scouting jamboree of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, typically attended by several tens of thousands of Scouts from around the world, aged 14 to 17.

The first World Scout Jamboree was organized by The Boy Scout Association in London. With exceptions for the war years, it has been organized approximately every four years, in the more recent years by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), in different locations over the world. The 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 was held in Hylands Park, Essex, United Kingdom, and celebrated the Centenary of Scouting.

History

The world jamborees are organized by the World Organization of the Scout Movement, although the World Federation of Independent Scouts also hold Jamborees for their members.

The Scouting programme became an international success following its founding by Baden-Powell in 1907. With is continuing growth, the founder of the movement saw a need for a gathering of representatives of Scouting from all around the world. The general aim was to foster a worldwide brotherhood, and to help the young boys in the movement learn about other peoples and nations by direct interaction with them.

However, the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 delayed any plans for such an event. It was not until 1920 that the first World Scout Jamboree could be realized. It was held in the Olympia halls in Kensington, London. 8,000 Scouts from 34 countries attended the event.

Thereafter, a Jamboree has been held every four years. There are two exceptions to this series: no Jamboree was held between 1937 and 1947 because of the Second World War, and the 1979 Jamboree, which was to be held in Iran, was cancelled due to the political upheaval in the region at that time. The Jamboree has been held in different countries around the world. The first seven Jamborees were held in Europe. The eighth World Jamboree was held in North America where the tradition of moving the Jamboree among the continents began. As yet, the continent of Africa is the only one which has not hosted a World Scout Jamboree.

To replace the cancelled event of 1979, the World Scout Committee determined that an alternative celebration, the Jamboree of the Year should take place. Several regional camps took place, along with countless Join-in-Jamboree activities designed to allow Scouts from around the world to participate in an activity that thousands of other Scouts around the world were also participating in at the same time. This Join-in programme is being reproduced again as part of the Scouting 2007 Centenary celebrations.

So far, the greatest attendance of all Jamborees was in 1929, where over 50,000 members from around the world descended upon Birkenhead in the north-west of England. This number represented the permanent contingent who remained for the entire event. They were joined by hundreds of thousands of visiting Scouts who participated on a day basis.

The first Jamboree was more akin to an exhibition of Scouting, allowing visitors to see how things were done in other parts of the world. The Second Jamboree was conducted on a camp basis and each successive Jamboree has developed on this format where the programme is typically more activity oriented, with plenty of time for Scouts from different nations to interact and learn about each other in less formal ways than an exhibition would allow.

The 2007 Jamboree coincided with the Scouting Centenary celebrations. Because of this, the honour of hosting the event was again bestowed upon the United Kingdom, as the birthplace of Scouting. Over 40,000 young people camped in August at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex. Hundreds of thousands of day visitors attended events in the south-east of England as part of the Jamboree.
The next Jamboree will be in 2011 in Sweden, the Jamboree in 2015 will be in
Japan

1920 1st World Scout Jamboree Olympia, Kensington, London, United Kingdom 8,000 participants

1924 2nd World Scout Jamboree Ermelunden, Denmark 4,549 participants

1929 3rd World Scout Jamboree Birkenhead, United Kingdom Coming of Age 30,000 participants

1933 4th World Scout Jamboree Godollo, Hungary 25,792 participants

1937 5th World Scout Jamboree Vogelenzang, Bloemendaal, Netherlands 28,750 participants

1947 6th World Scout Jamboree Moisson, France Jamboree of Peace 24,152 participants

1951 7th World Scout Jamboree Bad Ischl, Austria Jamboree of Simplicity 12,884 participants

1955 8th World Scout Jamboree Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada New Horizons 11,139 participants

1957 9th World Scout Jamboree Sutton Park, United Kingdom 50th Anniversary of Scouting 30,000 participants

1959 10th World Scout Jamboree Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines Building Tomorrow Today 12,203 participants

1963 11th World Scout Jamboree Marathon, Greece Higher and Wider 14,000 participants

1967 12th World Scout Jamboree Farragut State Park, United States For Friendship 12,011 participants

1971 13th World Scout Jamboree Fujinomiya, Japan For Understanding 23,758 participants

1975 14th World Scout Jamboree Lillehammer, Norway Five Fingers, One Hand 17,259 participants

1979 (15th World Scout Jamboree) Neyshâbûr, Iran cancelled

1983 15th World Scout Jamboree Calgary, Canada The Spirit Lives On 14,752 participants

1987-1988 16th World Scout Jamboree Sydney, Australia Bringing the World Together 14,434 participants

1991 17th World Scout Jamboree Soraksan, South Korea Many Lands, One World 20,000 participants

1995 18th World Scout Jamboree Flevoland, Netherlands Future is Now 28,960 participants

1998-1999 19th World Scout Jamboree Picarquín, Chile Building Peace Together 31,000 participants

2002-2003 20th World Scout Jamboree Sattahip, Thailand Share our World, Share our Cultures 24,000 participants

2007 21st World Scout Jamboree Hylands Park, United Kingdom One World, One Promise Scouting Centenary 38,074 participants

2011 22nd World Scout Jamboree Rinkaby, Sweden Simply Scouting

2015 23rd World Scout Jamboree Kirarahama, Japan A Spirit of Unity