Jane's Midlife Journey

Three food festivals in three weeks – don’t mind if I do! For a bit of variety, this one has some art thrown in. Highcliffe Food & Arts Festival takes place annually in the main road through Highcliffe (Lymington Road) and on the adjacent Recreation Ground.

How to get to Highcliffe Food & Arts Festival

Highcliffe is just 8 miles east of Bournemouth. As the main road is closed to traffic during the festival, causing congestion. And with parking being limited (and expensive), we usually travel by bus.

By Bus

Buses X1/X2 travel from Bournemouth to Highcliffe. Due to the road closure, the buses take a detour just before the festival, turning right into Wharncliffe road and re-joining Lymington Road at the end of the festival site. Options are to alight just before the detour (The Lord Bute) or just after it (Sea Corner). Sometimes the bus driver will stop on Wharncliffe Road near the festival entrance, but this is rather hit and miss. 

Note: Towards the end of the day, buses are likely to be full. If you are travelling west to Bournemouth, it’s best to catch the bus from the eastern end of the festival site (Sea Corner stop), this way you have a much higher chance of getting a seat.

Parking

If you do choose to drive, there is a car park a few minutes walk away at Highcliffe Cliff Top Car Park. Parking costs in summer are £2.30 for one hour. Further details can be found here.

Dates

The festival takes place over a weekend in June, running from 10 am until 5 pm (4 pm on Sunday).

• The dates for 2025 were Saturday 14th/Sunday 15th June
• 2026 dates TBA

Price

The festival is a free event.

The festival takes part across two areas. The Recreation Ground has some food and drink stalls, the cookery demonstration marquee, a stage for live entertainment, a variety of arts & crafts stalls and the children’s entertainment area. The main road contains more food and drink stalls and a second live music stage. A couple of chefs on stilts wander around providing that weird selfie opportunity.

Food & Drink

We worked our way round the recreation ground and along the length of the road admiring, sampling and purchasing the goodies on over from the 100+ artisan food & drink stalls. Helen purchased some pick ‘n’ mix olives. There’s a huge variety of fillings stuffed into the most enormous olives I’ve ever seen.

It’s a hot day, so cool drinks were in order. There’s a double decker bus bar, plus plenty of other refreshment options. We stopped at a Gin Bar where Helen chose blood orange, while I went for pineapple gin. Very nice, but I’m not sure the pineapple leaf is necessary – it kept poking me in the face when I tried to drink!

At the far end of the festival site is Highcliffe Sports & Social Club, which sells drinks (and food) at very reasonable prices and has plenty of outdoor seating. Here, you can sit and enjoy your drink (this time we went for cider) whilst listening to the the music from the stage opposite.

Arts & Craft

There are some lovely goods on sale at the 60+ craft stalls. My favourites were fish made of used beer cans and designer homes for wildlife.

Cookery Demonstrations

Demonstrations by celebrity and renowned local chefs take place throughout the day.

Live Music

There are two stages offering live entertainment (such as music, dance classes and children’s entertainment) throughout the day; one on the Recreation Ground and the other in Lymington Road in front of Tesco Express.

Once we were full of chips and gin, it was time to wend our way back to Bournemouth. We decided we weren’t confident with the bus driver’s flag down a bus suggestion, so continued along the main road until we reached a bona fide bus stop. Then back to Bournemouth tired, a little sunburned and still clutching our gin glasses.

Highcliffe Food & Arts Festival for Children

The festival has plenty on offer to keep children entertained. There is a dedicated Kids Zone on the Green with a full programme of Children’s entertainment, including entertainers, treasure hunts, dance workshops and craft events. There is also a Grow Your Own planting tent and a Kids’ Kitchen running biscuit decorating sessions throughout the day.

In addition, there is a children’s play area in the corner of the recreation ground.

• Updated: June 2025

I hope you found this information useful. For more inspiration on things to do in and around Bournemouth, check out my 101 Things to do in Bournemouth here.

For more inspiration on things to do in and around Bournemouth with young children, check out my 101 Things to do in Bournemouth with Babies and Toddlers here.