Filey Butlins 1977

*Yuk*...you couldn't pay me to go to a Holiday camp ....although 2 of my brothers both worked in the holiday camps during summer season at various times... as redcoats and croupiers...

They were cheap , entertainment for families back in the day... nowadays holiday camps are desperate dirt ridden hovels in the main
 
Thanks, Furryanimal. I'm not familiar with the concept of a "holiday camp". Is it a type of amusement park? It certainly appears that folks were having a good time. I looked this one up and found that 1977 was it's last year of operation. Was this a favorite place for you back in the day?
 

The holiday camp is an 'amusement park' with tiny cabin rooms.

Butlins which were the first of it's kind , in it's heyday back in the 50's was very popular and enjoyable for the masses, because it was cheap and families got all their entertainment thrown in for one price. By the early 70's ..it along with other holiday camp companies like Pontins.. were really starting to lose it's glitter as more and more people discovered cheaper ways to holiday abroad.. and the holiday camps began losing their lustre...

Many up and coming stars who became 'cheaply paid' entertainers in the 50's and 60's in the holiday camps ( known as redcoats) went onto become well known on British TV as singers, or comedians...

Today the Pontins Holiday camps still exists and are still cheap and horribly run...

 
Tommy said:
Thanks, Furryanimal. I'm not familiar with the concept of a "holiday camp". Is it a type of amusement park? It certainly appears that folks were having a good time. I looked this one up and found that 1977 was it's last year of operation. Was this a favorite place for you back in the day?
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People would spend their hard earned money on a week or two in these camps.They were very popular.
We had three family holidays in Butlins Minehead camp.I loved riding the monorail and rowing around the lake.
That one is still open.Filey closed in the eighties.
Butlins had a great rival-Pontins as posted about by Hollydolly.Never went to one of theirs.
You could visit their camps for a day trip....always had an annual day out at Barry Island Butlins-also long gone-where i always rode the chair lift.
 
Thank you to each of you all for your WONDERFUL replies. I can imagine this experience as having been great fun back in the day. :D

I don't recall ever hearing of this sort of attraction in the US, although something similar may well have existed somewhere.
 
Most Americans got their exposure to the “holiday camp” concept in the 1975 film, Tommy. It seemed to play up commercial exploitation and consumer manipulation, and then there was Keith Moon of The Who exuberantly playing the calliope with his hands and feet as a lure… 🙀

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