Jane's Midlife Journey

Arts by the Sea is Bournemouth’s annual arts festival. Held every autumn, it consists of a mixture of art installations, music, dance, theatre and all manner of other performances. The festival place over a three day period at venues around central Bournemouth, running from the beach, up through the gardens and into the town centre. All events are free and unticketed.

Note: The 2025 festival is the last to receive major funding for the local council. For 2026, the festival team is seeking sponsors and looking to stakeholders, community leaders and residents to help keep the festival going.

2025 – WE ARE HERE

In 2025, Arts by the Sea ran from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th September. The theme was WE ARE HERE, billed as a “bold celebration of community, creativity, and the power of place”.

The large scale installations of previous years were absent. Instead, the focus was more on performance. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great and I decided I couldn’t be bothered to traipse into town to see men wandering round dressed as dogs and jellyfish.

Cirque Bijou

Headlining this year’s festival was Cirque Bijou, a kind of low rent Cirque du Soleil, who performed with aerial artists and a suspended piano and illuminated umbrellas on Friday and Saturday evening.

In Hand

After all the spectacular installations of the past few years, this year’s offering was a willow hand. Next…

Bite Sized festivals

In addition to the main event, there were a couple of one day mini festivals in the suburbs. This year’s offerings consisted of face painting, mask making and willow weaving workshops, bubbles, drama, music and vegetarian snacks. These took place in two suburbs to the north of Bournemouth:

• Saturday 7th September in West Howe
• Sunday 7th September in Bourne

Festival Fringe

For the first time, this year’s event also included a Fringe Festival which aimed to transform local bars, bookshops, galleries and gig spots into a celebration of creativity. To be honest, there wasn’t really anything in the fringe festival which wasn’t happening anyway.

2024 – Taste

2024’s Arts by the Sea took place from 27th to 29th September. The theme was Taste. With a storm predicted for Sunday, there were some last minute scheduling changes, with the Finale taking place on Saturday evening and Sunday’s event just sort of fizzling out with installations being uninstalled early and other acts moving inside to random venues. Here are a couple of highlights.

Evanescent

Headlining this year’s festival was Evanescent, an immersive bubble experience from Sydney-based design studio Atelier Sisu, which was illuminated at night.

The Honey Pot

Another illuminated installation was the Honey Pot. Sitting on the beach, this honeycomb shaped structure was set alight on Saturday evening, with a backdrop of fireworks.

Digital Graffiti and Animated Light Projections

Digital Graffiti and Animated Light Projections lit up the Pavilion and Upside-Down-House with a kind of illuminated graffiti.

2023 – Moment

The 2023 edition of Arts by the Sea took place between 29th September and 1st October. The theme was Moment as we were encouraged to take a Moment and be present.

Portal

The star of the show was Portal; a 15 metre tall mirrored frame which stood on the beach. After a delayed start (there was a storm which prompted fears that the structure might fall over and crush someone), the portal was unveiled to condemnation by the parents of two children who drowned in the summer. They said the structure framed the place where their children died. The council agreed it was crass and that the portal would be removed – but didn’t actually remove it. In addition, the mirrored structure which was supposed to proved ‘an ever-changed backdrop of the beach, the sea and the sky’ was placed in front of, and thus reflected the public toilets. Nevertheless, Portal attracted plenty of visitors.

Light Hearted

In order to illuminate the giant heart, two people had to stand on a platform holding hands, thus completing the circuit. If you don’t hold hands – the magic won’t happen. Light Hearted was an Insta must.

Orchestra of Objects

My favourite this year was the Orchestra of Objects; a collection of weird and wonderful musical instruments created from unwanted objects. This was a great hit with the kids, who had fun trying out all the instruments.

For whatever reason, the parade which was so popular in 2022, did not reappear in 2023 and was instead replaced by a Flash Mob, which was disappointing.

Previous Years

2022 – Play

The theme for 2022 was Play. The theme certainly made the event even more popular for families with young children and there was plenty of laughter and squealing to be heard around town as the young (and the old) enjoyed watching, listening to and interacting with the various projects.

The Luminarium

The year saw three main installations: The Luminarium was a ‘pneumatic sculpture’, consisting of a labyrinth of inflated shapes, which you could climb into to enjoy a display of light and colour. It looked pretty cool, but I’ll be honest, I’m not the most patient person. We went on Saturday, saw the length of the queue and decided to skip it. On Sunday, we went again hoping it would be less busy. They had closed the queue because it was too long. It was a bit like the Queen’s coffin all over again. In a upside down bouncy castle in Bournemouth.

The Nectary

The Nectary consisted of large flowers hanging from a gazebo in the Gardens. They emitted bee sounds, thus inviting visitors to ‘immerse themselves in nature as they mimic a pollinating insect moving between giant glowing flowers’. It was particularly popular with small children and there was plenty of giggling every time the bee noises started up. The illuminated flowers looked particularly striking after dusk.

Airship Orchestra

To quote the organisers, The Airship Orchestra is ‘a mystical tribe of otherworldly characters beamed from the night stars, skin streaked with galaxy and voices like stardust’. The installation’s large inflatable figures, which emitted sound and light, proved very popular with children (and adults!) who were keen to bounce on the giant Weeble-like figures, causing them to wobble and blink with their LED eyes. I did actually hear one mother tell her child off, saying: “It’s Art. You mustn’t touch it!” Which I thought was a bit sad. Isn’t that kind of the point?

Carnival by the Sea

As already mentioned, the weekend culminated in a parade entitled Carnival by the Sea, which was made up of musicians, dancers, flag bearers and giant puppet figures. The puppeteers, volunteers from the local community, were great at making their puppets interact with the crowd, waving and high fiving and so on. When I tried to take a photo of an Indian puppet, it bent over and patted me on the head, which scared the living daylights out of me!

The carnival was fun and very popular, particular the puppets. It was a fitting way to round off a great weekend of artsy entertainment.

2021 – Connect

2021 coincided with me starting a new job and I spent the weekend in a darkened room, remembering why I’d previously already decided to retire! Then ventured forth in search of wine. But for those who were inclined to spend their weekend in a more cultural, less alcohol fuelled manner, the theme was Connect.

2020 – Journeys

Not surprisingly, 2020 was a scaled down affair, due to Covid, but there was a festival with Journeys being the theme. The main installations were well spaced out across Bournemouth and Poole, so we tried to fit as many as possible into our own journey; a Sunday morning run.

The year was not without controversy; The Windbreak by Cold War Steve was two sided, with a ‘hopeful‘ side and a ‘dark‘ side. The dark side featured, among other things, a naked Boris Johnson chasing a pig. This did not go down well with the local (Conservative) council and in the end, only one side was displayed!

I don’t usually post photos I haven’t taken myself, but here is one similar to what I might have taken if the work hadn’t been censored by the council.

2017 – Plastic Beach

The first year I came to Bournemouth, in 2017, the theme was Plastic Beach, focusing on the the need to recycle more single use plastic which all too often ends up on our beached. This saw such events as people dressed in rubbish wandering round the gardens and a giant bottle made of discarded plastic bottle on the beach.

Arts by the Sea for Children

The festival is very much a family event, with plenty for children to see and do. As well as the various installations and performers, there are plenty of stalls throughout the festival area offering children the opportunity to make, draw, create and interact.

Unfortunately, this year’s headline act Cirque Bijou didn’t start performing until 7.30 pm, so not ideal for younger children, which is a shame.

• Updated: September 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.