Car park floors to close while 1,000 people work out

Two floors of a city's multi-storey car park will be closed while 1,000 competitors take part in a high-energy fitness event.

Flatout Fitness will use the site in Rose Lane, Norwich, for three days this weekend, with set up due to take place on Saturday and the competition held on Sunday.

To use the venue, it paid the council £5,000 based on daily tariff rates.

A spokesperson for Norwich City Council said: "The organisers approached us about hiring Rose Lane for their event and worked with us to minimise disruption for car park users, which included avoiding Norwich City home games."

Patrick Matthews said the unique venue space helped with the appeal of the event

The event will take place between 08:00 BST and 16:00 on Sunday, and Adam Smith, from Flatout, described the car park as the perfect venue.

He said: "Why not? One of the reasons why we wanted an indoor venue is to do with the weather. Some of our equipment needs to keep dry and we landed on Rose Lane Car Park.

"We've been working with the council and they kindly let us use the venue, [it's] a perfect city centre location.

"Once they [Norwich City Council] realised I was being serious... they were very accommodating and understood we are very serious about this."

'It's unique'

Flatout's Patrick Matthews said it was the biggest venue they could find to host the event in the city.

He said: "It's the unique aspect of it. It's not something we've seen done in Norwich before.

"Our last event was held in an AirHanger, which I think adds to the appeal of the event."

Competitors have paid an entry fee of £75 to complete a loop of activities including lunges, squats and burpees.

The council said: "We are pleased to enable this local business to put on a unique fitness event in the city centre.

"Advance signs, social media posts and website information have been issued to advise regular customers."