The 2014 pan-European MOVE Week, from 29 September to 5 October, more than tripled the number of events compared to last year. Funding from the EU and a broad-reaching partnership with Coca-Cola Europe helped make it possible.

After last year’s massive success with 1,259 events all over Europe in just one week the organisation behind Europe’s biggest community sport and physical activity event, International Sports and Culture Association (ISCA), had high hopes for the 2014 edition. The ambitious goals were 2,000 events in 250 cities across 33 countries organised by 600 MOVE Agents.

After an initial estimate it was clear that these goals were thoroughly surpassed: While we are still waiting for the final count, the result to date is an impressive 4,256 events in more than 1,000 cities across 38 countries organised by 2,357 MOVE Agents and counting. A lot of events that actually took place are yet to be registered on the moveweek.eu website. The final count could see the number of events exceed 4,500 and the number of participants well over 1 million.

European Union funding and broad-reaching partnership with Coca-Cola Europe makes the difference

“It goes without saying but this has by far been the most successful MOVE Week in the history of the NowWeMOVE Campaign. We have shown that when dedicated people all pull in the same direction it actually is possible to get people in the millions moving. I want to thank the thousands of MOVE Agents and volunteers that took upon themselves to make the Europeans MOVE more. I would also give special thanks to the European Union for making this possible via the 1 million Euro grant and Coca-Cola Europe for the equally important financial support,” ISCA Secretary General, Jacob Schouenborg, says.

The week showed an incredible diversity of activity with some events contributing to changing their society’s perception of groups, such as table tennis for the blind and visually impaired in Latvia and a wheelchair basketball tournament in Albania. Some contributed to changing habits in the workplace by encouraging employees to take the stairs instead of the elevator for a day. Others promoted cycling and walking as sustainable and cheap forms of transport and, of course, some just made sure their local kids had great fun while getting active.

Europe will MOVE again in 2015

The MOVE Week got off to an early start with the Flash Mob on 20 September, where 3,463 people in 71 cities across 21 countries danced the same moves at the exact same time, uniting Europe for the cause for more physical activity. One week later the MOVE Week kicked off.

Because of the great success it is without question that the European MOVE Week will be back in 2015. Over the coming weeks and months further announcements will be made about how to get involved in Europe’s biggest community sport event.

MOVE Week facts

MOVE Week and the NowWeMOVE campaign are organised by the International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA) in collaboration with the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) and is supported by the European Commission and Coca-Cola Europe.

The MOVE Week 2014 is supported by the European Union in the framework of the Erasmus+ Sport Support for Not-for-profit European Sport Events. Find out more about the Erasmus+ Sport programme here.

Coca-Cola Europe, through The Coca-Cola Foundation, supports the ambition of ISCA to promote physical activity across Europe. Coca-Cola wants to inspire youth and their families to be healthier and happier by moving more. As part of that vision, The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners run over 90 different Active Lifestyles programmes in 31 countries, which reach over 3.5 million people. It has set itself an ambitious goal of getting 10 million Europeans moving by 2020. Learn more about Coca-Cola Europe’s active lifestyle approach here.

ISCA is a global platform open to organisations working within the field of sport for all, recreational sports and physical activity. Created in 1995, ISCA is today a global actor closely cooperating with its 137 member organisations worldwide, international NGOs, and public and private sector stakeholders.

With over 70 members across nearly 40 countries, ECF unites cyclist associations from across the globe, giving them a voice on the international level, with the aim to get more people cycling more often by influencing policy in favour of cycling.

5 Key Facts from the MOVE Week 2014

• 38 countries were officially part of MOVE Week
• 1,025 cities registered events during MOVE Week (number can rise when all events are registered online)
• 2,357 MOVE Agents registered MOVE Week events (number can rise when all events are registered online)
• 4,256 MOVE Week events took place during the week (number can rise when all events are registered online)
• An estimated 1,000,000 participants (number can rise when all events are registered online)