ORGANISERS of the Arts by the Sea festival have heralded this year’s event as a huge success after the packed schedule of events in Bournemouth came to a close with a giant community parade.
All manner of art installations, demonstrations and activities took over the town across the weekend.
Bournemouth Town Hall was the backdrop for the biggest and most creative projection mapping exhibition in the festival’s history on Saturday night.
The activities were round off on Sunday evening with the Carnival by the Sea parade seeing communities from across the conurbation bring colour and sound to the heart of the town centre.
Andrea Francis, Arts by the Sea festival director, told the Daily Echo: “The festival never went away. We did the festival in a different way but it was fantastic to be back without any Covid restrictions.
“It is really clear people are ready to get out there and party.
“We chose the theme ‘play’ almost a year ago now. People have had a really hard people of years and now it feels like that there is more of that to come with the financial crisis.
“It was great to be able to create positive experiences for people to enjoy together.
“We found it really nice to allow people to almost give themselves permission to find time and space to have fun. I think that is really important in the current times.”
Highlights this year along with the projection mapping and parade included the Luminarium, which received great reviews with people queuing up to two hours to see it on Saturday, and the skateboard and BMX ramp demonstrations in the Square.
Arts by the Sea was originally launched in Bournemouth 11 years ago and is slowly expanding across Christchurch and Poole.
The festival team is bringing a programme of art to Christchurch town centre on Saturday, October 8.
Andrea said the reaction to this year’s Bournemouth schedule had been “huge” and it had been “amazing” to receive positive feedback.
“We are actually a really small team with the festival led by BCP Council and working with the council’s events team.
“We started planning this year’s festival before we had even finished last year’s and this year we have reapplied for Arts Council funding so we have already started to think about what we want to do in future years.
“It is all about providing positive experiences for the residents of BCP.
“People have been saying just how lucky they feel to have this on their doorstep, and I think the fact it is free and accessible makes a big difference.”
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