Sandown residents are being invited to help shape the town’s bid for a £3million cultural prize at a free family event next week, despite the last-minute loss of its original venue.
The Sandown Town of Culture Day will take place at the Trouville Hotel on Sandown Esplanade on Wednesday 21st October, from 10:00-15:00, bringing together entertainment, hands-on activities and opportunities for residents to have their say.
The event had originally been planned for The Arena big top at Sandham Gardens, but organisers were forced to find an alternative venue after it was announced that the Island-based circus tent would no longer be coming to town.
The Trouville Hotel has since stepped in to offer its ground floor ballroom, allowing the event to go ahead during the October half-term.
Organised by the Sandown Tide Turners bid team in partnership with Creative Island’s Can You Hear Us?, the day will feature artists, performers and community groups helping to develop Sandown’s vision for UK Town of Culture 2028.
Tracy Mikich, of the Sandown Tide Turners bid team, has said:
“This free event is your opportunity to tell us what you want to see, hear and experience across Sandown if our bid to be UK Town of Culture is successful.
“We’re really grateful to the Trouville for opening up their ground floor ballroom to the community. With the wonderful Shademakers UK, The Common Space and Graft Studios, we’ll be bringing together some of the Island’s most inspiring artists and performers to offer entertainment and hands-on activities for the whole family.
Article continues below this advertisement “And we want to know what you think about the ideas we have for 2028. Drop in, get inspired and help build our bid.”
Among the ideas being put forward is a Tide Turner festival of arts and science, exploring Sandown’s history and identity through 4 themes – Wonder, Curiosity, Origin and Adaptation.
The proposed festival would celebrate everything from dinosaur footprints and Charles Darwin’s links to the town to the writings of Lewis Carroll, Sandown’s carnival and regatta traditions, and modern marine conservation work by local eco-business Artecology.
Visitors to Wednesday’s event can expect drumming workshops, dance performances, film screenings, storytelling and creative activities.
Joe Plumb, of bid partners Shademakers UK, has said:
“From tiger stories to drumming workshops, dance performances to film screenings, this programme is a fantastic celebration of the incredible wealth of creativity in Sandown.
“It’s a brilliant chance to meet some of the artists and creatives involved in Sandown’s Town of Culture bid, discover their work and have your say about the town’s cultural future.
“Following the cancellation of The Arena big top, the Sandown community has rallied together, as it always does, to make sure the show goes on.”
Discovery Bay, Sandown’s pop-up natural history museum, will also be attending with a collection of fossils, bones, skulls, preserved specimens and other natural history exhibits spanning 100 million years.
Visitors will be encouraged to handle exhibits and use microscopes to examine specimens up close, including the museum’s giant micro-eye.
Ian Boyd, of The Common Space, has said:
“Because the museum is all hands-on, you can pick up anything you want and take a closer look.
“But for that extra-super-close experience, why not try out the museum’s fabulous microscopes, including the giant micro-eye, and meet our mini-beasts face to face?”
Other activities will include an origami dream-folding session with artists Laura Hathaway and Sue Paraskeva, contributions from Sandown-based Graft Studios and a performance about foraging for wild food by the Somewhen Survival Society.
Sandown is 1 of just 15 finalists selected from nearly 400 towns that entered the UK-wide competition.
The town’s bid team must submit its final proposals by 30th November, with a £3million prize at stake.
Wednesday’s free event will give residents an opportunity to influence those plans before the final submission.
