Swindon pickleball festival draws nearly 200 players for charity

Nearly 200 players from more than 50 clubs are set to crowd Delta Tennis Centre for a sold-out June 13-14 festival that is doing more than filling courts. The Swindon Pickleball Early Summer Festival will also launch a campaign to build two permanent pickleball courts in Lesotho, giving the weekend a reach that stretches far beyond Wiltshire.

Shaun Jones, chairman of Swindon Pickleball, says the event keeps growing each time, and this edition brings in players from across the United Kingdom as well as Hong Kong, Australia and Ireland. The Lesotho project gives the festival a clear charitable purpose, with funds to be raised over the coming months for courts that will sit alongside existing community sports facilities in one of the world’s poorest countries. Jones’s connection to Kick4Life, the sport-based organization working with vulnerable young people, gives the campaign a personal link and a stronger development angle.

The setting matters. Delta Tennis Centre has become one of Swindon’s key pickleball homes, with indoor and outdoor courts, dedicated pickleball lines and regular sessions that draw players from across the town. The venue’s partnerships with the LTA and local pickleball clubs help explain why it can support an event of this size, and why the festival feels less like a one-off pop-up and more like a sport building permanent roots.

That growth has been quick. Swindon’s first pickleball festival in August 2024 drew more than 90 players and used 12 indoor courts. The second festival in April 2025 expanded the footprint further, bringing in players from Belfast, the Isle of Man, England and Wales, with a friendly format that left trophies and medals off the table. The early summer edition now pushes the field close to 200, a leap that says as much about demand as it does about the event’s organization.

Hjälpande Händer Catering adds another layer to the weekend. The volunteer-run Swindon group will provide food and refreshments, while also offering paid catering work for young adults with special needs. In one sold-out festival, Swindon has built a model that mixes competition, travel, fundraising and local opportunity, and that combination is becoming a template for how amateur pickleball can grow.