2025 Arnold Sports Festival UK – Is it happening or not?
The Arnold Sports Festival UK is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest and most controversial event.
The Arnold Sports Festival UK was a very successful event when looking from the outside, but behind the scenes, cracks started to form, that would allegedly destroy this great event.
The event took place in 2021 and 2022. After a change of management in 2022, the event would not take place in 2023, to then finally return in 2024.
In June 2023, the new event organizers already started to promote the event, making it known that the event had a change of management, and it would be taking place just weeks after the 2024 Arnold Classic USA.
The 2024 Arnold Sports Festival UK was not as big as in previous years and absent from the event, were the amateur bodybuilding and fitness events.
Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled to the UK for the 2024 Arnold Sports Festival UK, making his first appearance at this event, after not making an appearance for the first two editions.
The promotion for the 2024 Arnold Sports Festival UK started approximately in June 2023. The promoters invested a lot in its marketing campaign, linking it with the Arnold Sports Festival USA, and emphasized the increase in prize money, to possibly bring some of the biggest bodybuilding stars to the UK.
Fast forward to September 2024, and no indication is being made that the event will be organized in 2025.
Evolutionofbodybuilding.net sent questions to the NEC Group, the host venue for the Arnold Sports Festival UK, asking them if they have any indication if the event is being organized for 2025.
The NEC Group promptly replied, “In response to your inquiry, the NEC is purely the host venue for the Arnold Sports Festival therefore you would need to contact the event organizer directly.”
Evolutionofbodybuilding.net also sent questions to the Arnold Sports Festival UK organizers, but at the time of publishing this article, they have not sent their reply.
The official website of the Arnold Sports Festival UK, and all the social media pages, have not been updated since March 2024. This is a big indication that the 2025 event could be scrapped. No dates have been indicated.
Some random updates of Pumping Iron are posted on the Arnold Sports UK Instagram page, with some followers asking if the 2025 Arnold Classic UK is taking place, but their questions seem to be falling on deaf ears.
If the event is to take place in March 2025, this only leaves six months to promote this event. With such a small amount of time available, it’s looking very unlikely that the event will take place in 2025.
The promotion for the 2025 Arnold Sports Festival USA immediately started after the 2024 edition ended, highlighting the increased prize money for the winner, which even exceeds the Mr. Olympia prize fund for the winner.
With more funds being dedicated to the event in the USA, this could be one of the reasons the event in the UK could be shelved.
Many professional athletes see the UK event as a fantastic opportunity to compete on the world stage, and as well a great opportunity to earn their Olympia qualification. If the event is still scheduled for March 2025, athletes already have to start planning if they are going to compete at this event or not.
If the contest is canceled, it’s only fair that the athletes are informed, so they don’t schedule their contest prep around this event.
If there are any new updates regarding the 2025 Arnold Sports Festival UK, Evolutionofbodybuilding.net will publish the news immediately.
The History of the Arnold Sports Festival UK
The Arnold UK made its debut in 2021 when Stephen Olexy formed a partnership with Arnold Schwarzenegger, to promote and run the event in the United Kingdom.
The build-up to the Arnold UK in 2021 was perfect. Athletes and fans could not wait for this event to get started.
The NEC in Birmingham was the venue for this great event, having more than enough space for the thousands of fans to attend the expo and events.
Thanks to the marketing genius of Stephen Olexy, Stephen managed to bring some of the world’s biggest stars to these events, such as Sylvester Stallone in 2021, and Sugar Ray Leonard in 2022.
Unfortunately for the fans and athletes, Arnold did not travel to the UK in 2021, due to an injury, and he was absent from a super seminar with his good friend Sylvester Stallone.
After a successful event in 2021, the same management and promoters put together the same event again in 2022, but this event would have a black cloud over it.
Everything goes downhill after 2022
After the 2021 Arnold Sports Festival UK ended, the company that runs the Arnold Classic, “Classic Productions”, went through some major changes and was renamed “World Championship Events Inc.”
The major change at the Arnold Sports Festival headquarters was that Arnold parted ways with his partner Bob Lorimer, and replaced him with Brian Powers, who was then named Arnold Classic Executive Director.
Arnold Schwarzenegger again did not attend the event in 2022, causing fans to vent their frustration towards the promoter Stephen Olexy, who had no control over this situation.
Read More: “Arnold didn’t show up” – Former Arnold Sports Festival UK Promoter
With Brian Powers in total command, he immediately cut ties with Stephen Olexy, allegedly removing him as a partner with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The event did not take place in 2023 and returned in 2024, but with some major changes. The amateur bodybuilding events were left out of the 2024 Arnold UK Sports Festival. Allegedly, 2Bros Pro have exclusive rights to NPC amateur bodybuilding events in the UK, and Brian Powers refused to work with them, after not seeing eye to eye with 2Bros Pro in 2022.
When Bob and Jim Lorimer were still involved in organizing the Arnold Classic, there was a fantastic relationship with the bodybuilding media, with their marketing team staying in close contact with all the media, keeping everybody up-to-date.
With Brian Powers at the helm, the situation changed drastically. The connection between the media and the Arnold UK marketing team fell apart, with a select few allegedly given preference and easy access to the event.
Brian Powers runs the event with an iron fist, reminiscent of the days when Robin Chang used to run the Olympia Weekend. Not all the press have full access to the event.
The amateur athletes that have always dreamed of competing at the Arnold UK, felt betrayed when the amateur events were removed from the 2024 Arnold Sports Festival UK.
The Arnold Sports Festival was always known for promoting amateur bodybuilding, and removing it from the 2024 Arnold UK was a bad decision.
Brian Powers might have an eye for marketing and promotion, but does he understand the sport of bodybuilding?
Of course, Powers wants the best athletes in the world at his events, and the best way to convince them to come is by raising the prize fund, but he cannot forget where the pro athletes come from, they were all amateurs at one point in their career.
A perfect example of how successful an event can be with amateur competitors is the Arnold Sports Festival Europe, organized by IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja and his wife Nieves.
The Arnold Sports Festival Europe attracts over 1,000 amateur athletes, competing at the highest level.
Unfortunately, Powers allegedly turns a blind eye to this event, even though it’s Arnold’s most successful international event. The 2024 edition of the Arnold Sports Festival Europe, will be the 14 edition.
From Classic Productions to World Championship Events
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bob’s father, Jim Lorimer had a business partnership that started in the late 70’s. After retiring from the sport of bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger teamed up with Jim Lorimer to promote several bodybuilding events.
Finally, in 1989, history would be made when the first edition of the Arnold Classic was organized; Rich Gaspari would go on to win this event.
After the success they had in 1989, Arnold and Jim would continue to promote the Arnold Classic together until 2021, the partnership lasted for over 45 years. Jim Lorimer’s son, Bob Lorimer, would replace his father and be named President of Classic Productions in 2015.
Arnold and Bob continued to work together until they had a falling out in 2021. Arnold would start a new company called World Championship Events, Inc., replacing Classic Productions.
Schwarzenegger is the Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Powers is the Executive Director of World Championship Event, Inc.
