YOUR £90 TICKET
The ticket price includes the following:
- A place on the trip (7th April-14th April 2025)
- A Bummit goody bag containing a ‘Bummit to Bratislava’ T-shirt, the Big Bummit Bible (which will include a map, information about hitchhiking, information about the countries you might travel through, information about the halfway point and endpoint, the safety phone and check in phone numbers) and much more;
- Accommodation and entrance to the end party in the halfway city;
- Accommodation on the night of the 14th April in Bratislava and entrance to the end party in Bratislava, Slovakia;
- A meal in Bratislava before the night out;
- Invitation to all pre- and post-event socials, including ‘team mating’ events;
- Public liability insurance (please note that you’ll need to book your own travel insurance which covers hitchhiking as an activity and travelling across borders without pre-booked travel arrangements. Further information relating to this provided below);
- Guidance on how to fundraise and opportunities for fundraising.
Your ticket DOES NOT include:
- Return transport from Bratislava or any other type of pre-booked travel; we recommend you book return travel in advance;
- Public liability Insurance covering hitchhiking after the 14th April 2025
- Travel insurance for the duration of Big Bummit 2025 and any additional travel you plan to undertake following the conclusion of Big Bummit before you return to the UK. You’ll need to arrange this yourself and ensure it covers hitchhiking as an activity and travelling across borders without pre-booked travel arrangements in order to take part in Big Bummit to Bratislava 2025. Further information relating to this provided below.
N.B Please note that if you choose to hitchhike back from Bratislava, our public liability insurance will not cover this and Bummit and the University of Sheffield Students’ Union accept no responsibility for you. Bummit’s public liability insurance finishes at midnight on the 14th April 2025.
YOUR £250 SPONSORSHIP
The minimum sponsorship is £250, and we require 2 cheques for £125 to be handed in to the Activities Zone (level 3 in the Students’ Union, next to Coffee Revolution) (Mon-Fri 10.30am-4.30pm) as a guarantee if you haven’t raised your sponsorship by 27th March 2025 (you’ll need to submit one cheque of £125 if you’ve raised £125 or over by 27th March 2025, or two cheques of £125 if you’ve raised less than £125 by 27th March 2025) .
The cheques should be made out to ‘Sheffield Students Union’ and should give your name, email address and Ucard number on the reverse. Once you’ve hit your fundraising target, we’ll shred your deposit cheque and throw it away.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to pay your deposit via cheque and haven’t raised your sponsorship by 27th March 2025, you can pay your deposit online by going to to this link: https://su.sheffield.ac.uk/events/id/10033-big-bummit-to-bratislava-2025-deposits
You’ll need to purchase two Bummit sponsorship deposits of £125 at this point if you’ve raised less than £125 or one Bummit sponsorship deposit of £125 if you’ve raised £125 or more by 27th March 2025.
Unfortunately, if you choose to pay online, the money will be taken from your account and put into Bummit’s holding account, but this will be refunded once you’ve raised the required sponsorship. Your first deposit purchase will be refunded once you’ve raised £125 and the second will be refunded once you’ve raised £250.
* Please note that deposit refunds can take up to 10 days to be processed from the point at which you hit your target.
The deadline to raise the sponsorship is Monday 26th May 2025. If you are unsuccessful in raising the minimum sponsorship before midnight of this date, your full sponsorship deposit cheque will be cashed unless you pay the difference to top your fundraising up to the £250 target or your online sponsorship deposit won’t be fully refunded- we do however have the means to do partial refunds of online deposits and so will refund you the amount of money you’ve successfully raised if you fail to hit the £250 target. Warning emails will be sent out before this happens and the fundraising pack contains information and tips to help you raise the full amount.
Sponsorship must be raised using a GiveStar account and your fundraising page must be linked to Bummit’s account otherwise your sponsorship will not come through to us, any money raised in cash must be added to this account and details of how to do this, as well as details of how to set up your GiveStar page, can be found in the fundraising pack which will be emailed to you after you’ve purchased a ticket.
The £250 DOES NOT include gift aid, which is used to fund the administration of Sheffield RAG and Bummit; for more information of how this works, please visit sheffieldrag.com
SAFETY
Bummit has an excellent safety record, and part of the reason for this is that we offer well-informed hitching advice. Your safety and well-being is of the utmost importance to us, so please pay close attention to the following:
- YOU MUST ATTEND ONE OF TWO SAFETY MEETINGS. This is mandatory and failure to attend means you will not be allowed to participate in the trip. Please ensure you check your emails for information and updates from the Bummit Committee. It is your responsibility to do this.
- Each team is required to check in by phone with the Bummit check in team, within a designated 2 hour time frame each day. If a team has not checked in, they will be called by the Bummit check in team until they give an update on their situation via phone. You will also be required to check-in your location (either via the Bummit Tracker or via text) at the end of each day. This is the minimum you will be required to check in and you may be asked to check in more regularly. You must follow any requirement made by Bummit for additional check-ins which will be explained to you before they are put in place.
- We advise you to take a note of the registration plate of each car you get into and message it to the safety phone if you feel unsafe. We will elaborate on how you can do this during our compulsory safety talk.
- If you have an emergency, there is a 24-hour safety line run by an experienced Bummit Committee member with the support of Sheffield Students’ Union and The University of Sheffield. This will be available for you to call all throughout the trip.
- It is illegal to hitchhike on any motorway, the Sheffield Parkway, and certain toll areas in some countries. People have been picked up by the police in the past for trying to hitchhike off the Parkway roundabout, so try to avoid being dropped there.
- You must hitchhike in groups of two or three, including one cisgender male member who must be first in and last out of each vehicle you hitchhike in.
- We advise each team, preferably each member, to bring a first aid kit.
- Do not separate from your teammates during Bummit. Hitchhiking alone or without a male team member is not permitted. If a situation arises where you feel you need to separate from your teammate(s), call the safety phone and we will work with you to resolve any issues. If reconciliation is not possible, participants will be asked to travel by public transport to the nearest steward-point city where stewards will make a final attempt to reconcile teammates if safe to do so and rearrange teams so as to split your team up if necessary.
- If you are taking part in Big Bummit to Bratislava 2025 with teammates who you don’t know very well, or as an inexperienced hitchhiker we advise taking part as part of a team of three as opposed to a team of two.
- We recommend that all participants have enough money in their account to get them home on public transport in case of emergencies. This includes emergencies related to the contracting of Covid-19. If you contract Covid-19 whilst taking part in Bummit, you must follow the rules related to Covid-19 in place within the country you find yourself in when you receive a positive test. Bummit Committee and relevant SU staff will be able to provide support via the phone, but won’t be able to provide financial support during this time.
- Please remember to keep your mobile phone charged, topped up and switched on at all times throughout the trip. Please ensure that you have enough credit to check in and make emergency calls.
- We recommend that you do not take valuable items, since your trip is not covered for personal loss or theft. However, we do hold extended public liability insurance for the event with Howden Insurance. You will, however, need to arrange your own travel insurance which covers hitchhiking as an activity and travelling across borders without pre-booked travel arrangements. See below for further details around travel insurance requirements.
- Please check your email regularly in the lead up to the trip, as we will email out important information to you relating to the trip.
- We employ a staff member who oversees our events. If you or your family have any questions about safety procedure, feel free to contact Lucy Coull by calling 0114 222 8546 or e-mailing lucy.coull@sheffield.ac.uk
SCHENGEN VISA REQUIREMENTS
By purchasing a ticket for Big Bummit to Bratislava 2025 trip you are confirming that you are either exempt from requiring a Schengen visa to travel throughout the Schengen zone or that you have obtained a confirmed visa that covers your time and travel throughout the trip and can provide evidence of your visa if required.
To check if you require a Schengen visa please go here:
https://www.schengen-visa-info.eu/who-needs-a-schengen-visa
Please DO NOT purchase a ticket for Big Bummit to Bratislava 2025 before obtaining a Schengen visa if you need one, as we won’t be able to refund your ticket if your visa application is unsuccessful. We can reserve you a ticket if you are waiting for a visa application decision. If you require this please email eei.bummit@sheffield.ac.uk.
We advise anyone who requires a Schengen visa to read through the information and follow the process found here.
TRAVEL INSURANCE
All participants are required to have travel insurance that covers them for the entire time they are outside of the UK. All participants need to book their own travel insurance which must meet the following criteria:
- Your policy must cover leaving the UK and travelling into mainland Europe without pre-booked travel. Some standard single trip travel insurance policies include the stipulation that the traveller has pre-booked travel arrangements for crossing the UK border before the beginning of their trip and these won’t cover Big Bummit due to the unpredictable nature of hitchhiking.
- Your policy must cover travel throughout the Schengen Area beginning on the 7th April 2025 and ending on the date that you plan to return to the UK. If you are continuing your travels beyond the dates of Bummit to Bratislava then you MUST obtain travel insurance which covers the entirety of your travels and return including the duration of Big Bummit 2025.
- Your chosen policy must not exclude hitchhiking. Whilst ‘backpacking’ travel insurance policies often cover hitchhiking, this is not always and it isn’t only ‘backpacking’ travel insurance policies which do provide cover for hitchhiking. To ensure hitchhiking is covered, we advise carefully reading through policy terms and conditions before purchasing and contacting the insurance provider for confirmation if in doubt.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- All participants must be a current student of the University of Sheffield.
- Whilst you are on Bummit please be aware you are representing the University of Sheffield and Bummit, so you must avoid any actions that could risk the reputation of the students union or university.
- If it is proven you have caused damage on the trip resulting in compensation being paid by Bummit, you will be invoiced for the cost after the event.
- If for some reason, including reasons related to Covid-19, you are unable to participate in Bummit and wish to drop out, the ticket price is non-refundable as per Union policy. However, you are free to try and find someone to buy your ticket from you and take your place on the trip. If you do sell your ticket to someone else, please let a member of Bummit Committee know as soon as possible by emailing bummit@sheffield.ac.uk. If you drop out, we are not able to return any money raised, this will be donated to charity as planned.
- Please ensure that you have at least 6 months of validity from the 7th April 2025 on your passport and that your passport is less than 10 years old. Following the UK’s departure from the EU, 6 months of passport validity is required to travel throughout various parts of the EU.
- We recommend that you check both your bank’s and your mobile provider’s policies around EU travel charges in the lead up to the event and take any necessary precautions needed to reduce any charges such as travelling with cash, or using a Monzo card or GiffGaff sim card.
- If you drop out from the 27th March 2025 onwards, your sponsorship deposit will be retained unless you are able to evidence that your reasoning for dropping out was unavoidable and unforeseeable and this reasoning is accepted in writing by Bummit’s dedicated staff support member (see above for contact details). Please note that we are not able to return any money raised. Any money raised will be donated to charity as planned.
- On the morning of the trip, you must present your passport and a digital copy of your travel insurance documentation in order to be allowed to check in to Bummit.
- By buying a ticket you are agreeing to raise a minimum of £250.
- The committee will do everything in their power to find you teammates including hitching with you if no team is found.
- If you have any disability, illness or mental health issue that could affect you while you are taking part in Bummit to Bratislava, please let us know when filling out our registration form. We want to support all students involved in our event in every way we can but can only do this if we are fully informed.
- Bummit reserves the right to require participants to download a mobile app or relevant tracking service that is accessible to them at all times during the trip. If this is required you will be informed before the trip. The primary motivation will be health and safety and the ability for us to track participant’s locations for the duration of the event only. By buying a ticket you are agreeing that in this eventuality you will download the specified app and grant Bummit Committee the relevant permissions to access your location.
- This event is run by Bummit; a sub-committee of Sheffield RAG within the University of Sheffield Students’ Union.
- Sheffield RAG’s charity number is 1199051
If you have any questions or queries in the run up to the event, please contact Bummit Committee at bummit@sheffield.ac.uk, or instagram.com/bummit.hitchhike, or www.facebook.com/Bummit