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MAY 2014

Katie Price is the latest name to join a star-studded bill at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival in October.

These include accomplished actors Simon Callow and Sheila Hancock along with Brian Aldiss, the ‘elder statesman of Sci-Fi’, novelists Katie Fforde and Daisy Goodwin, crime writer John Harvey, food writer and author Jonathan Meades and celebrity gardener and author Alan Titchmarsh. Neil Oliver, presenter of ‘Coast’, Philip Hook from ‘The Antiques Roadshow’ and former politician Ann Widdecombe will also be coming to share their experiences along with Charles Spencer, brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

www.isleofwightliteraryfestival.org

Famous faces will appear at a host of cultural and arts festivals across the Isle of Wight this year.If you prefer being on the ground as new talent breaks, Ventnor Fringe in August is for you. Just like the famous Edinburgh Fringe, acts have to apply to perform and venues spring up in the unlikeliest of places.

A stage in a secret wood, a bank that has been converted into a club and a pumping station on the seafront that becomes a club, venue and bar are just three. Plus this year the Fringe open their own arts centre, The Exchange, in the town’s former post office. Past acts have included Marques Toliver, Liam Bailey, Disraeli and talented singer songwriter Johnny Flynn.

www.vfringe.co.uk

As one of the first Festivals on the Island each year, Isle of Arts is the perfect way to spend the early May bank holiday weekend. With over forty events across four days the Festival features comedy, drama, music, literature, film and visual arts, and includes household names as well as local talents.

Festival highlights in 2014 included celebrity gardener Monty Don, Kyle Eastwood (son of Clint) and deadpan comic Rich Hall. Next year’s dates are May 1st to 4th 2015. To be the first to hear about acts as they are confirmed, sign up for the monthly newsletter at

www.artsisle.org

Music as an art form is very big on the Island, especially since the re-introduction of the music festivals. Massive names from the music world appear at the Isle of Wight festivals every year with acts such as The Rolling Stones, REM, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen having headlined at the IW Festival, which sets up camp on the eastern banks of the River Medina – this year from June 12th to 15th.

www.isleofwightfestival.com

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kings of Leon and Biffy Clyro are headlining the IW Festival this June with Outkast, Chic featuring Nile Rogers, Foals and Beck headlining at Bestival in September.

Bookending the summer, Bestival at Robin Hill just outside Newport, which runs this year from September 4th to 7th, has seen Elton John and Stevie Wonder topping the bill in recent years. Every year there is a fancy dress theme and this year it is ‘Desert Island Disco’. Loads of different stages feature everything from hip hop, spoken word and theatre performances to dancing lessons and comedy. www.bestival.net

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So much so that Celia and her friends intend to make them a regular attraction throughout the season.

A celebrated actress, Celia Imrie often visits the Island, which she sees as her second home. “I absolutely love every time I come to the Island. It’s an escape for me,” said Celia. “Your shoulders go right down as you board the ferry. There’s something about that little boat trip that is absolutely wonderful. I think the sun always shines at some point in the day on the Isle of Wight.”

Literary and musical greats from the past are brought to life as you tour around some of the most stunning parts of the Island on these top flight Literatour coach tours. Celia, Richard and Hugh take character parts in the audio presentation that is played throughout the tour along

with Sian Thomas, Fidelis Morgan and Andrea Miller.

Along the way you hear anecdotes from the Island’s literary history, with readings of poetry, letters and diaries of the celebrated literary and historical figures who once lived on the Island, along with music from Island composers.Each coach tour leaves Cowes Parade at 10am and travels through Gurnard, Yarmouth, Freshwater, Niton, Ventnor, with a brief stop at Bonchurch. At Shanklin there is a 40 minute lunch break on the seafront and the coach continues to Newport, Carisbrooke and Calbourne returning to Cowes approximately four hours later.

“It’s a real magical mystery tour,” said Celia Imrie of the tour that she devised with Fidelis Morgan. “You’re taken on

Literatours

Talking Tours with Celia ImrieTime travelling literary tours around the Island featuring the voices of Celia Imrie, Richard E Grant and Hugh Bonneville have been a great success since their launch at the first Isle of Wight Literary Festival.

this fabulous adventure. I’m a part of it and I’m really proud of it. It’s a really fascinating journey.” The next Literatour is on Sunday 25th May.

Telephone 01983 508854 to book a place or go to www.literatours.org.uk

Catch A Star

Festival Fever

FEATURING THE BEST ARTS & CULTURE EVENTS THIS YEAR

SEE PAGE 3 FOR DETAILS

Win tickets to BESTIVAL!

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Sir Edward Elgar and his new wife, Alice, decided to make the Isle of Wight their honeymoon destination, staying at Alexandra Gardens in Ventnor. Sir Edward said of the area

Contemporary musicians have continued to visit and the Isle of Wight became home to the extremely popular Isle of Wight Festival, now staged in June. In 1969, Bob Dylan attended and played to a crowd of 150,000, and a year later the festival attracted an estimated 600,000 people, with a line-up that

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet laureate from 1850, made his home at Farringford in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, and was followed across the water by a host of celebrity royalty at the time, including pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and writers such as Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. Many would be invited to Julia Margaret’s salon at her home Dimbola to be captured on film, and the house is now a superb gallery, museum and restaurant.

Of course Queen Victoria was in residence at Osborne House at this time and had a great interest in the arts, amassing an amazing collection of works from around the world, including personal frescos on the walls of her and Albert’s summer home. The Indian inspired Durbar Room is a work of art alone and the walls and floors of this beautiful Italianate palace are full of incredible art works from old masters and enormous family portraits to models of her baby children’s hands and feet.

Art through the Island’s AgesThroughout history many of the creatively inclined have taken up residence on the Island or made it a vacation destination. A permanent exhibition celebrates the

legendary 1970 Isle of Wight Festival held at nearby Afton Down as well as a lively programme of temporary exhibitions showing the work of contemporary photographers. Regular events attract a bohemian set similar perhaps to those of Julia’s day, which are held throughout the gallery, including Julia’s former salon; now a delightful shop and tea room serving delicious homemade cakes and light lunches.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Freshwater Bay became the Bohemian retreat of a circle of artists, writers and photographers – an oasis of poets, painters, pioneers and polymaths. Alfred Tennyson and his wife Emily moved to Farringford in Freshwater in 1853 in an attempt to escape the increasingly overcrowded, smoky and noisy capital city and the poet’s own celebrity. Tennyson attracted the greatest minds of the age, and made Freshwater a place of intellectual enquiry. They explored

Mosaics & More at Brading Roman Villa

the landscape, the heavens, the spirit world, caverns, shipwrecks, and newly-excavated dinosaur bones from adjacent cliffs.Alfred Tennyson may have been the leading luminary of the Freshwater circle but Julia Margaret Cameron was its driving force. A pioneering photographer, Cameron found herself ideally placed to take advantage of the Victorian vogue for pictures of celebrities, with her distinctive, full-head portraits. Other notable visitors included naturalist Charles Darwin, astronomer and mathematician Sir John Herschel and artist G. F. Watts and many more leading figures of the day.

Many of the places associated with the Circle can still be seen at Freshwater today and Julia’s house, Dimbola, is open to the public as a museum and galleries where you can learn more about her art and the people whose portraits she took.

www.dimbola.co.uk

Home and workplace of pioneer Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, Dimbola is now a museum and galleries with displays about Julia’s life and work, vintage cameras and a Victorian dressing up room that is especially popular with children.

PIONEER PHOTOGRAPHY AT DIMBOLA

included Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Joni Mitchell and The Who. (The population of the Island was less than 100,000 at the time.) In more recent years the festival has hosted stars such as The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Police and Sir Paul McCartney. This year the headline acts are Kings of Leon, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Biffy Clyro.

Bestival bursts onto the music scene in September with a whole host of up to the minute musicians and DJs along with an eclectic mix of comedy, spoken word and performance artists and film makers plus The Feast Collective – a brand new food area. Every year there is a new fancy dress theme, and this year it is ‘Desert Island Disco’ with headliners Outkast, Chic featuring Nile Rogers, Foals and Beck.

“…the flowers and wild things here are marvellous, so large and forward; and the gorse, which is in fullest bloom, so abundant and large. The hills, and there are many, and dales are one mass of brilliant yellow! The weather is gorgeous.”

Built by her beloved husband Albert and the refuge of Queen Victoria after his sad death in 1861, Osborne House is a time capsule of how the royal family lived in the late 19th century.

The Royal Collection at OSBORNE HOUSE

It was in the privacy of Osborne that the royal couple could indulge their passion for collecting and displaying art, away from the inherited, historic collections at the state-owned residences of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. The tastes of the royal couple, though so often shared, can however be clearly distinguished. The list of birthday and Christmas presents from Prince Albert to the Queen includes a high proportion of jewellery, sculpture and metalwork, whereas the Queen more often presented paintings and drawings to her husband.

Prince Albert had an enduring love of the Italian Renaissance artist, Raphael that

he shared with his art adviser, Heinrich Ludwig Gruner. Whilst an appreciation of Raphael and the Raphaelesque in contemporary art – principally the Nazarene school which is represented in the collection at Osborne - is entirely consistent with Prince Albert’s German education, his purchases of much earlier Italian pictures place him in rarer company among collectors in England.

In a concentrated campaign from 1845 to 1847, Ludwig Gruner obtained for the Prince twenty-seven Italian pictures of the fifteenth century or earlier, of which the greatest, a triptych by Duccio, was the first acknowledged work by the

artist to enter Britain.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert understood and appreciated sculpture more than any of their predecessors at the English court since Charles I, and the collection they formed is by far the most important to survive from this period.

The newly restored Swiss Cottage in the grounds, re-opened this year by the Earl and Countess of Wessex, was the playhouse for the royal children and the nearby natural history museum is full of every animal and mineral artefact imaginable, collected by the royals for their growing family.

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Perhaps the oldest artwork that can be viewed on the Isle of Wight is at Brading Roman Villa: a world-class museum which features some of the best preserved Roman mosaics in Europe and plays an active role in the cultural life of the Isle of Wight.

Regular events include open-air theatre productions, music nights and monthly film shows.

Work has now been completed on the Villa’s new secure exhibition space allowing the Villa to host touring loans from national museums and galleries. From May 19th to July 16th Leicester Museum will be presenting ‘Eating In’ -

the story of food, cooking and dining in the home and the way this has changed over time.

Then from August 1st to 31st the museum is hoping to host ‘Epic Movie Arms and Armour’ - a stunning exhibition of movie arms, armour and costume from feature films including 300, Gladiator, The Eagle and King Arthur.

www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk

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Inspired by the famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the event will be celebrating its fifth year in 2014 and will encompass midnight ‘lock-ins’ at the local library, intimate church concerts with rising stars, ‘pop-up’ cinemas, gigs in locals’ houses, mystery tours, woodland sing-alongs and parties on the harbour with 360-degree views over the bay. There is also an extensive programme of family entertainment and the Free Fringe, with busking and street theatre around the town.

Ventnor Fringe runs from the 12th to 17th August and some 400 artists are expected to take part, spanning every creative discipline and performing in pop-up venues all over the town. Plus the Isle of Wight Film Festival re-located to Ventnor three years ago and runs in conjunction with the Fringe from 12th to 16th August. Coinciding with the Fringe is Ventnor Carnival, which, like Sandown, will be celebrating its 125th anniversary this year with the main procession and fireworks on the

Wednesday and the illuminated carnival on Saturday.

Camping for the Fringe week is available with passes at just £10pppn, including free parking and the unlimited use of a shuttle bus service to Fringe venues and back. It’s a really affordable way to stay in Ventnor during the Fringe, especially as there is currently no other campsite in the area, and the Watcombe Bottom site on Whitwell Road also provides a great base to explore the south of the Island from, with walks directly off the site to St Boniface Downs and the Undercliff. For more details see www.vfringe.co.uk

The town’s abandoned Victorian Post Office is set to be transformed by the team behind the award-winning Ventnor Fringe Festival. Named the Ventnor Exchange, it will combine a record store and bar by day and a theatre by night, as well as provide development space for a range of associate artists and a venue during the Fringe and throughout the year. For more details see: www.ventnorexchange.co.uk

Guests for the Festival include renowned actor, director, author and journalist Simon Callow, actress and author Sheila Hancock, Brian Aldiss ‘The elder Statesman of Sci Fi’ and celebrity, business woman and bestselling author Katie Price.

Neil Oliver, presenter of ‘Coast’, Philip Hook from ‘The Antiques Roadshow’, writer and former politician Ann Widdecombe, novelists Katie Fforde and Daisy Goodwin as well as John Harvey, the well-known crime writer will all be coming. Another notable guest set to draw the crowds is author Charles Spencer, brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

The Literary Festival has become firmly established on the Isle of Wight’s

event calendar. The event prides itself on its ability to attract heavyweight authors and media personalities, whilst maintaining an intimate and boutique feel at venues such as Northwood House, St Mary’s Church and Trinity Theatre in Cowes.

Also joining the 2014 line-up are food critic and author Jay Rayner, TV celebrity and author Alan Titchmarsh, and politician, historian, broadcaster and columnist Tristram Hunt. Prize-winning Reuters Correspondent Tom Bergin, bestselling author Elizabeth Buchan, award-winning travel and history author Philip Marsden, and marine historian Sam Willis will also appear. Katie Waldegrave and surprise bestselling author Charlie Mortimer are

other notable additions, who join some 40 other writers, poets and performers in the varied programme that is sure to appeal to a wide audience.

This year’s event is once again in memory of Serena Courage, co-founder of the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, who passed away in 2013. The Festival’s organisers are indebted to the many sponsors and supporters of this year’s event, who include Red Funnel and the Isle of Wight County Press.

Programme director this year is Maggie Hanbury, London literary agent and proprietor of The Hanbury Agency. Maggie was given the Literary Agent of Year Award in 2013. For more details see

www.isleofwightliteraryfestival.org

With over forty events across four days, the Festival features comedy and drama, classical, folk, jazz and blues music, literature, film and visual arts, and includes big household names as well as local talents.

This year festival highlights included celebrity gardener Monty Don and deadpan comic Rich Hall. Liverpool poet Roger McGough gave his recital ‘As far As I Know’ and Virginia Ironside spoke

on ‘growing old disgracefully’. Kyle Eastwood (son of Clint) and his band were also on the bill along with Tenors Unlimited and the amazing Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Taking place in a number of venues around the pretty seaside town of Ventnor on the Island’s south coast, Isle of Arts also includes walks, talks, children’s events and artistic workshops, films, an Arts Trail round the town and

Isle of Arts

Ventnor FRINGE

Looking for something a little out of the ordinary this summer? Transforming the Island’s southern-most town for a week in August, the Ventnor Fringe is a unique gathering of artists from across the world who come together to showcase new work.

IW LITERARY FESTIVAL

Now in its third year, stars of television, politics, current affairs and bestselling authors will take the Isle of Wight Literary Fes-tival to new heights from 16th – 19th October this year.

As one of the first festivals to take place on the Isle of Wight each year, Isle of Arts in Ventnor is the perfect way to spend the early May bank holiday weekend.

Ventnor Fringe runs from the 12th to 17th August

V-Dub Festival (August 14th to 18th)celebrates the Volkwagen car and camper van, and the culture surrounding them – not just for owners, the festival is also for ‘like-minded people’. This year think ’Flower Power’ as the festival moves to the old 1970 pop festival site at Afton and the line-up includes Steve Rogers, son of Paul Rogers from Free who played the original festival. Sunday night headliner is Bestival curator and Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank and the Cuban Brothers.

www.v-dubisland.com

Newport Jazz Weekend (July 17th to 20th) is now an established annual event on the Isle of Wight, featuring the very best and all styles of UK jazz. Non-profit-making and organised by local volunteers and musicians, each year

in addition to the main acts there are workshops and free ‘fringe’ events. The 2014 headline acts include Derek Nash’s Acoustic Quartet, David Newton and Alan Barnes, the Simon Allen Quintet, Tipitina, the Pedigree Trad Band, a Tribute to Louis Armstrong, the Craig Milverton Quartet, the Nigel Price Organ Trio, Jim Hart, Mark Nightingale and the Karen Sharp quartet. www.newportjazzweekend.co.uk

Festival Fever continued

much more. Don’t be surprised to find pockets of music, dance or even a classic Punch & Judy show in car parks and bandstands.

All ticketed events can be booked separately, for your ideal Festival programme. Next year’s dates are 1st – 4th May 2015. To be the first to hear about events and acts as they are confirmed, sign up for the monthly newsletter at www.artsisle.org

Bestival -More Than Music

WINVisit Isle of Wight has teamed up with Wightlink to offer one lucky reader a pair of Bestival tickets (4th – 7th September) and ferry travel from either Portsmouth or Lymington (car or foot passenger) to the Isle of Wight.

To enter, please go to

www.visitisleofwight.co.uk

BESTIVAL TICKETS

The Grand Palace of Entertainment is an inhibition eliminating, twisted wonderland, featuring dazzling queens and party-starting midnight cowboys.

Camp cabaret comes to Bestival’s Desert Island, hosted by Scottee and Jodie Harsh returns to take over The Port with London and New York’s hottest gay party, Room Service.

Mr Motivator will be hosting daily fun and fitness routines on the main stage and outrageous trannies and club kids, Sink The Pink will run a ‘wake-up-workout’ there on Saturday morning. Rise-and-shine raves from Morning Glory offer yoga, hugs and massages plus Joga Beats will run yoga sessions in Bollywood.

Scroobius Pip will curate the line-up of the very best spoken word artists in the UK in his Satin Lizard Lounge. Distinctively attired in trucker cap, charity shop suit and THAT beard, Scroobius Pip is a leading light of the UK’s spoken word scene, revered for his very successful partnership with Dan le Sac.

And if you venture into the Ambient Forest late at night you’ll find the Amphitheatre transformed into a glorious cinema with live scores, cult classics, documentaries and short films programmed by the Branchage and London Short Film festivals. www.bestival.net

Two huge concerts are held on a large stage erected on the lawn right next Queen Victoria’s favourite home Osborne House every summer and you can sip Pimms whilst watching great artists as the sun goes down. This year it is the rising four piece X Factor winning band from 2011, Little Mix, who star on Saturday July 26th and The Voice judge and all round legend Sir Tom Jones who headlines on Sunday July 27th. www.osbornesummerconcerts.com

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Rhythmtree Festival from July 18th to 20th has a reputation for bringing an extraordinarily rich mix of high quality music to the Island each year. Bands such as La Chiva Gantiva, Da Lata and Lokkhi Terra feature on the bill this year along with Prince Fatty and Horseman, Tankus the Henge and Wille and the Bandits. Last year Ginger Baker made a rare appearance, and the festival frequently features musicians who have played with the greats. www.rhythmtree.info

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Firmly in the centre of the Island’s cultural landscape within several converted Victorian warehouses on Newport Harbour, sits Quay Arts.

Carnival season on the Isle of Wight kicks off on the 28th June at 3.00pm with the annual IW Mardi Gras in Ryde. Presented on the road without the need for floats, it sets the streets of Ryde alive with the sounds of samba and calypso. This is New Orleans meets Trinidad meets Rio on the Isle of Wight! The parade is led by The New Carnival Company’s mascot bucking bull inspired by the fattened calf or ‘Boeuf Gras’ from the New Orleans Mardi Gras. Riding the bull is Rex, King of Carnival, who bestows favoured members of the public with strings of Mardi Gras beads. Following are over 30 schools and youth organisations who have worked alongside professional carnival and visiting artists to create their individual sections within the theme of ‘Natural Geographic’, with glittering entries ranging from Polar Ice Cap to River Nile and Northern Lights to Masai Mara.

When the parade has worked its way through Ryde it finally processes over the Carnival Stage at Eastern Esplanade Gardens, which hosts

CARNIVALIsland

traditional world music and carnival musicians from 12 noon.

www.thenewcarnivalcompany.com

The first Ryde Carnival was held in 1888, following the successful Queen’s Jubilee celebrations in Ryde the previous year (1887). Queen Victoria attended again, accompanied by her daughter Beatrice and it was reported that, “Her Majesty scanned the grotesque figures which met her gaze with an amused smile.” Following the success of this first carnival, Sandown and Ventnor held their first carnivals in 1889 and the other towns of the Island quickly followed.

The Isle of Wight Council decided to recruit carnival development experts to infuse the Island carnival tradition in 2000. Mass bands of walking performers with amazing structural costumes are now a big part of the carnivals, along with rousing Salsa Bands.

See Arts and Culture events for this Summer’s Carnivals

The Isle of Wight is well-known for its fabulous carnivals and is one of the most concentrated places in the country to see them, so make sure you catch at least one of these magical events, which are held in Ryde, Ventnor, Sandown, Shanklin, St Helen’s, Cowes, Yarmouth and Newport.

“Over the summer here we have some big hitters such as Shakespeare’s Globe who are coming to perform Much Ado About Nothing on the lawns in front of Osborne House”

Robert Miles of Quay Arts

Robert Miles of QUAY ARTS

STEAM RAILWAY

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… but peer beyond the steam and you’ll find a cracking programme of entertainment and themed weekends when the steam trains provide the perfect centre-piece for us to put on something extra!

Staged in the natural setting of our tree-lined arena, Midsummer Jazz is the Island’s big open-air jazz party, this year featuring the frenetic Mike Sanchez & His Band and the impossibly talented Swing Commanders. Our 1940s Experience

offers a weekend of pure nostalgia with inspired music and dance, silk stockings and military machines, spivs doing deals and The Three Belles singing spankingly good songs from the era!

A weekend of imaginative street theatre appealing to children aged 2 to 102, sees The Railway Folk ‘take over’ the railway, while our Victorian Weekend offers pageantry, travelling theatre and songs from the music halls … And for four days

over the August Bank Holiday weekend The Island Steam Show presents stunning arena shows, live music on The Woodland Stage, street acts and traditional fairground rides.

Inspiring, surprising and award-winning, whenever you visit, The Isle of Wight Steam Railway will charm, engage and captivate, leaving some lasting memories of a special day out.

For more info www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk

WED 18 & FRI 20 JUNE 7.30PM THU 19 & SAT 21 JUNE 2.30PM AND 7.30PM

FOR TICKETS: AVAILABLE ONLINE WWW.QUAYARTS.ORG | QUAY ARTS BOX OFFICE 01983 822490

QUAY ARTS OUTDOOR PRODUCTION AT OSBORNE The performance takes place outdoor in the grounds of Osborne House, so please bring a picnic rug or low backed seating and suitable clothing for all weather conditions. The performance will go ahead in all but the most extreme weather conditions. Refreshments will be available.

Globe Theatre On Tour Presents

MUCH ADOABOUT NOTHINGBy William Shakespeare

Over four dates six performancesTICKETS £17 | CONCESSIONS £11 | SCHOOLS £9

Splicing the Mainbrace from June 16th to 23rd, the Festival of the Sea encompasses sea shanties, beach art, fishing, sailing lessons and food-tastings, including the Red Funnel Cowes Food Festival and Cookery Theatre in Cowes Yacht Haven on June 21st and 22nd.

Following on from the frivolities at Festival of the Sea, Small Hope Beach at Shanklin will host ‘All At Sea’, a beach festival with birdman competition, cardboard boat race, sand sculpture competitions, pirate lessons, live music and an undercover beach bar on June 28th and 29th.

www.visitisleofwight.co.uk/events/festival-of-the-sea

Headline Act at this year’s Festival of the Sea is the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race organised by the Island Sailing Club on Saturday, June 21st.

FESTIVAL of the Sea

Its large West Gallery is one of the finest local gallery spaces in the country and this summer Quay Arts is forging links with the Tate and Shakespeare’s Globe under the guidance of Artistic Director Robert Miles.

“We’re working with the Tate to bring the Turner Prize winning artist Martin Creed to the West Gallery and he’ll be showing from June until September,” explained Robert. “His work is amazing - he did the ringing of the bells at the opening of the Olympics. We’ve selected works of his owned by the Tate and we anticipate showing more work from their collection on the Island in the future.

“Over the summer here we have some big hitters such as Shakespeare’s Globe who are coming to perform Much Ado About Nothing on the lawns in front of Osborne House: six performances through June 18th to 21st.”

Resident artists have studios in Quay Arts’ Jubilee Stores warehouse where courses run throughout the year. “One of the really nice things about coming to the Island to do a course is that sense of otherness,” said Robert. “Getting

the ferry and leaving one piece of land behind, with all the worries of everyday life, and arriving onto another piece of land with endless possibilities. Plus we can recommend some lovely places to stay – we have some beautiful boutique B&Bs here in Newport within walking distance.

“The Island is a magical place with an abundance of natural beauty and natural light that attracts artists to come here to work. There’s also an amazing legacy of artists who have come here in the past – the Island is very inspiring in that way.

“We go to the Edinburgh Festival every year and bring the best of what we find up there to our theatre,” explained

Robert. “We run a monthly comedy club, which is always very popular.”

Monthly Acoustic Original nights showcase local musical talent with those performing often finding themselves on the stage of the Kashmir Café, run by Quay Arts at the IW Festival in June. “We’re building a relationship with the Bestival and we’re going to be running a main bar at Ventnor Fringe this year with classes, workshops and performances; spreading the magic of Quay Arts across the Island,” added Robert.

“Hospitality is a central core of what we do and at the heart of our main building is our shop selling the most amazing unique work from the best craft makers and our wonderful café, both beautiful spaces. I’m very proud of our team and our terrace overlooking the river is one of the nicest places to spend time on the Island. There’s always a fantastic creative buzz here.” www.quayarts.org

A heritage railway might not immediately spring to mind as a centre for entertainment and the arts

Midsummer

The 1940s Experience

The Railway Folk The Island Steam Show

Midsummer Jazz 28th JuneThe Island’s big summer open-air jazz party event featuring the frenetic Mike Sanchez & His Band and the impossibly talented Swing Commanders.

The 1940s Experience 5th & 6th JulyInspired music and dance … Silk stockings and military machines … Men in uniforms and spivs doing deals – pure nostalgia!

The Railway Folk 26th, 27th & 28th JulyFeaturing a host of captivating characters, this fascinating and imaginative street theatre will appeal to children aged 2 to 102!

The 40th Island Steam Show 22nd – 25th AugustClimb aboard the traditional fairground rides, enthrall at the stunning shows in the main arena, and enjoy live music on The Woodland Stage.

For full details of these and our many other Special Events throughout 2014, please go to www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk

The IW Steam Railway is open throughout the year See www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk for opening times and train timetables.

The Railway Station, HavenstreetIsle of Wight PO33 4DS � 01983 882204

Summer Adventures

Special Delightsto make your holiday complete!

Arts&Culture events

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EventJMW Turner Exhibition at Shanklin Chine

The Picturesque Landscapes of Thomas WalmesleyThe Blacksmith Experience

Rhythmtree by Lucy BoyntonLocal Views & Landscapes - Gordon Smith

Eating In: The Story of Food, Cooking and Dining in the HomeLiteratours

Exhibition: The Essence of an Island by Leigh JackmanYarmouth Old Gaffers Festival

Yarn Craft - Learn to Knit - with Tracy O’BrienPop Up Opera at The Garlic Farm: “Cosi Fan Tutte”

Exhibition: Janet Ledger, Harry Brioche and Christie BirdCountry Dancing Festival

Isle of Wight FestivalFestival of the Sea

Quay Arts and Shakespeare’s Globe: Much Ado About NothingRag Rug Making at Charlotte’s Studio

Marbling with Melanie Swan6th Annual Midsummer Jazz

Royal Isle of Wight Agricultural Society ShowRyde Mardi Gras

Chris Packham Wildlife PhotographyThe 1940s Experience at IW Steam Railway

Ryde Art Collective at Quarr AbbeyCOLLAGE Taster with Ian Whitmore

Cowes Artisan MarketNewport Jazz Weekend

Isle of Wight Arts Open StudiosRhythmtree Festival

Sandown Carnival: 125th AnniversaryOsborne House Summer Concerts: Tom Jones & Little Mix

MIST: An evening of alternative film with foodYarmouth Carnival

Cowes Artisan MarketQuantum Theatre perform Alice Through the Looking Glass & The Tempest

Ventnor Fringe FestivalVentnor Carnival: 125th Anniversary

V-Dub Island FestivalIsle of Wight Garlic Festival

London Contemporary Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Treasure IslandReally Wild Photography

Blurred Boundaries: Stitch, Photograpy and the Landscapes of Virginia WoolfBestival

Bel Cantanti at The Garlic FarmMIST: Pianofest - a weekend of alternative film

Ryde Art Collective Autumn ExhibitionThe Extraordinary Travelling Film Show present Little Shop of Horrors

Retro Yoga Weekend at Vintage VacationsJewellery Design & Creation with Lauren Griffiths

Ventnor Botanical Artists ExhibitionSweetcorn Fayre

Electric Woods Festival of Light & Divali The Art of Writing Fiction with Sam North

Contemporary Felting with Gillian ChapmanIsle of Wight Literary Festival

Watercolour Painting Workshop with Paul HewsonArt from the Heart with Stoney Parsons

Winner’s Showcase: The Isle of Wight Photographer of the YearIsle of Wight Arts Open Studios @ Christmas

Cowes Christmas FestivalIsle of Arts Festival

Websitewww.shanklinchine.co.uk

www.carisbrookecastlemuseum.org.ukwww.facebook.com/jrpblacksmith2007

www.dimbola.co.ukwww.nationaltrust.org.uk

www.bradingromanvilla.org.ukwww.literatours.org.uk

www.seaviewart.co.ukwww.yarmoutholdgaffersfestival.co.uk

www.quayarts.orgwww.thegarlicfarm.co.uk

www.islandfinearts.comwww.iwsteamrailway.co.uk

www.isleofwightfestival.comwww.visitisleofwight.co.uk

www.quayarts.orgwww.iwgreenshop.com

www.quayarts.orgwww.iwsteamrailway.co.uk

www.riwas.org.ukwww.thenewcarnivalcompany.com

www.dimbola.co.ukwww.iwsteamrailway.co.uk

www.facebook.com/TheRydeArtCollectivewww.quayarts.org

www.facebook.com/CowesAMwww.newportjazzweekend.co.uk

www.isleofwightarts.comwww.rhythmtree.info

www.sandowncarnival.comwww.osbornesummerconcerts.com

www.seahorsesisleofwight.comwww.yarmouthcarnival.org.uk

www.facebook.com/CowesAMwww.botanic.co.uk

www.ventnorexchange.co.uk/vfringewww.ventnorcarnival.com

www.v-dubisland.comwww.garlic-festival.co.uk

www.botanic.co.ukwww.isleofwightzoo.com

www.dimbola.co.ukwww.2014.bestival.net

www.thegarlicfarm.co.ukwww.facebook.com/thepianocafeiow

www.facebook.com/TheRydeArtCollectivewww.botanic.co.uk

www.getbendy.co.ukwww.seaviewhotel.co.uk

www.botanic.co.ukwww.arretonbarns.co.uk/content/events

www.electricwoods.co.ukwww.thegrangebythesea.com

www.seaviewhotel.co.ukwww.isleofwightliteraryfestival.org

www.paulhewsonart.co.ukwww.thegrangebythesea.com

www.dimbola.co.ukwww.quayarts.org

www.coweschristmas.co.ukwww.wwartsisle.org

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Tom Jones

Jazz Festival

Much Ado About Nothing

Festival OF LIGHTinspired by DiwaliThis October, Robin Hill’s electric woods presents the Festival of Light, a stunning spectacle of creatively themed lighting, colour, sound, and entertainment inspired by the Hindu Festival of Diwali where light triumphs over darkness and good triumphs over evil.

From 4th October – 1st November, as darkness falls, visitors can experience the majesty of Robin Hill’s glorious autumnal woodland transformed into the spectacular illuminated ‘electric woods’ as it captures the spirit of the most popular festival in the Indian calendar.

Wandering through the electric woods, visitors will be entertained by the ancient story of ‘Ramayana’ creatively interpreted through sound & light shows, shadow theatre and interactive light installations.

The woodlands will be brought to life with a dazzling array of vibrant coloured lanterns and features will include the stunning “Golden Oriole” bridge with its cascading golden water, and Hindu shrines.

An authentic Indian menu of curries and Asian sweets will be served at the woodland ponds where magical reflections will be created in the water and themed music will add to the ambience.

Celebrated across the world, Diwali is the largest, brightest and most popular festival in the Indian calendar. The word Diwali means “row of lighted lamps”, with light symbolizing the triumph of good over evil, prosperity over poverty and knowledge over ignorance. It’s a time for lighting diyas (or lamps), laying out colourful rangolis (colours), enjoying fireworks, exchanging gifts of sweets and celebrating with dance, music and storytelling.

For more information about the Festival of Light please visit :

www.electricwoods.co.uk

Stay for a ten day break and you could fit in both weekends.

This year sees the artists of the Western side of the Island open their doors over the weekend of 18th to 21st July and those in the Eastern side are inviting you to their studios from 25th to 28th July. Handy guides are available from various outlets including Quay Arts, the Island’s artistic hub in Newport, and jaunty red Open Studio flags flutter outside each location to show the way.

Visitors have the opportunity to meet and see artists at work and to buy the finished artworks and entry to all locations is free. Venues range from

Members are predominantly Ryde-based producing contemporary art of high quality including painting, photography, pastels, mixed media, printing, ceramics and polymer clay.

TRAC stage two major exhibitions each year in the Spring and Autumn and smaller ones throughout the year at various venues on the Isle of Wight. TRAC’s forthcoming exhibitions are:

Quarr Abbey, Fishbourne, Nr Ryde, PO33 4ES 10th - 15th July 2014

Autumn Exhibition at The Depozitory, 23 Nelson Street, Ryde, PO33 2EZ 13th - 21st Sept 2014

Take 4 at Ryde Library, George Street, Ryde, PO33 2JE 3rd – 29th Nov 2014

The Garlic Farm in Newchurch might be the last place you’d expect to see opera but the very popular Pop Up Opera group return to the farm on 6th and 7th June for their fourth visit and this is actually a perfect setting. The group will be performing Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, his famous and much loved comedy opera.

Then on the 12th and 13th September the Garlic Farm is hosting a new group of well-known Island singers, Bel Cantanti, who will be presenting a Gilbert & Sullivan concert, featuring popular pieces from their large repertoire.Both events include a longer than usual interval during which The Garlic Farm

Mezze Supper will be served in the Restaurant. For further information and to book tickets, please contact The Garlic Farm on 01983 865378. www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk

The Hillside Hotel under St Boniface Downs and their sister restaurant Hillside Bistro down the hill in Ventnor town have a wealth of art on their walls and in the Bistro exhibiting artists regularly have open evenings to present their new work.Lisa Rogers will be exhibiting her land and seascapes in May and June features the work of prominent Island artist Lisa Traxler with her amazing

David Firmstone is one of these: an internationally acclaimed painter who lives and works in St Lawrence on the Island. Vice president of the Royal Watercolour Society until 2010, and a recipient of an MBE for his services to art in 1997, David is repeatedly inspired by the landscape and history of the Island when he paints his frequently large, colourful canvasses. “One of the things about the Island is the light,” explained David. “All those people in Cornwall went on about the light there but I think it’s better here. It’s quite sparkly, the landscapes and seascapes, because of the sea and the reflection of it.”www.davidfirmstone.com

Lisa Traxler creates lyrical abstract paintings and sculptural pieces including huge enamelled vitreous steel sculptures. Lisa is best known for her now collectable large canvas

abstract paintings and more recent work includes stitched collages incorporating her photography and archival works.

Her award winning art has been exhibited widely and shown in Cork Street and the Mall Galleries and the home that she designed with her husband Lincoln Miles, The Tree House, has been featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs. www.lisatraxler.com

Sue Paraskeva has an international reputation as a potter and was recently commissioned by Calvin Klein. Her modernist functional hand thrown porcelain pieces are coveted by many – she once made a 94 piece tablewear service for Kevin Costner! www.sueparaskeva.co.uk

Matthew Chambers is especially well known for his sculpted clay globes that have got more and more intricately faceted as the years have progressed.

Art is all around you on the Isle of Wight and not necessarily where you might expect to find it.

Unusual Venues Garlic Farm, Hillside Hotel & Bistro, Ventnor Arts Club

OPENSTUDIOS

church halls, galleries and shops to artists’ homes and even custom made sheds in their gardens.

Last year’s event saw over 150 artists exhibiting across the Island from ceramics and jewellery to fine art and felt crafts. Open Studios are as varied and diverse as you can imagine and offer the chance to buy direct from the artists. Plus you’re sure to come away feeling inspired.

Artists also have an Open Studios @Christmas exhibition at the Quay Arts on Saturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December.

www.isleofwightarts.com/openstudios

His work is collected worldwide and his sculptural pieces are ending up in some very interesting collections. www.matthewchambers.co.uk

Jo Hummel-Newell was selected for the Venice Biennale last year. “The images I create are frames, capturing and freezing an event. Within the frame is all the information, sensory experience and emotional response of that instance,” says Jo of her work. www.joannehummelnewell.com

Tim Johnson is a seriously talented world-class basket maker who lives on the island with his family, although he runs specialist courses in basketry worldwide. You can catch him on the Island at the Quay Arts from August 25th to 28th where he will be running a Contemporary Basketmaking Summer School. www.timjohnsonartist.com

Island Artists

A huge number of artists have their homes and studios on the Isle of Wight, some of whom are extremely successful and sell all over the world.

“All those people in Cornwall went on about the light there but I think it’s better here”

Ryde ART COLLECTIVEThe Ryde Art Collective (TRAC) is a non-profit making group of artists and craftspeople formed to give local professional creative people an opportunity to work and exhibit together.

It’s a rare opportunity to get invited into an artist’s creative space, but each July Isle of Wight artists and crafts-people open their studios or homes to the public for two open studios weekends.

abstract works. In July the new body of work from Ventnor-based artist Celia Wilkinson will be shown, August is Staffordshire based Leigh Davis’s first Island exhibition, September sees Linda Beale from Freshwater exhibiting her work and in October Steve Miles will be presenting his first exhibition. www.hillsideventnor.co.uk

Would you expect to be drinking, watching a film or taking in a cabaret show within a former NatWest Bank? Ventnor Arts Club is a members club, where people involved in the arts and media or keen supporters of creativity can relax, have a drink, enjoy a film, music and other regular events. Based within a stylish 1920’s bank, the interior has been restored and refurbished to reveal its previously hidden beauty, but is also bristling with technology like fast WiFi, HD cinema projection and surround sound.

Regular film screenings, live music and cabaret feature on the bill and the club occasionally becomes a venue for local Arts festivals. Based on the London style arts clubs such as the Groucho and Soho House, VAC has a membership policy but temporary membership for visitors to the Island can be arranged - email info@ventnorartsclub.com or call on 01983 857060 for further details.

www.ventnorartsclub.com

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Matthew Chambers Jo Hummel-Newell

Lisa TraxlerPop Up Opera group

Sue Paraskeva

Great reasons to book✔ More routes ✔ More ferries ✔ Island-wide coverage✔ Convenient connections ✔ Great onboard facilities

Book your travel todaywightlink.co.uk

There’s art everywhere. We even had a reputed Banksy on a wall in Ventnor a few years ago.

Galleries tend to open up in Cowes for the season so you may find a new one when you visit, which is always exciting. Kendalls Gallery, the most established, is in a large purpose designed 1500 sq ft airy space on the parade in Cowes and represents over 80 contemporary artists, holding a new show of around 100 new paintings every four to five weeks.

Also in Cowes is the quirky pale blue Pelham House Gallery and café, known as PHG, has a vintage, coastal theme and is passionate about promoting handcrafted work of high quality from artists, designers and small artisan businesses with textiles nestling happily alongside ceramics, paintings, prints, jewellery and sculpture.

Green Buoy Arts further up the High Street only features work from Island artists and photographers and has art with a strong maritime theme and owner Maddy is often working within the studio. Joliffe’s Coffee Shop feature

Island Art GalleriesArt galleries are on the increase on the Isle of Wight - get out and about and you’ll discover them in the most unlikely places.

Island artists and have a superb vintage shopfront and interiors.

Island Fine Arts in Bembridge has some very exclusive and collectable works of art at its High Street location and specialises in art of the 20th and 21st century. Seaview Art Gallery is a small family run gallery towards the top of Seaview High Street and it specialises in maritime art produced by local artists. Pay a visit to the Priory Bay Hotel and you could have your photograph taken between Churchill and Roosevelt on Lawrence Holofcener’s amazing lifesize ‘Allies’ sculpture sitting on a bench in the garden – then take afternoon tea or lunch on the terrace.

Ryde Depozitory is a great gallery space and art studios in a former Wesleyan Chapel with regular exhibitions and functions. Quarr Abbey has an exhibition space that is hired by Island artists throughout the year, opposite the library in the gatehouse to the left of the main abbey.

Quay Arts in Newport is the Island’s artistic hub with large gallery and it also

This year MIST is stretched over two weekends. The first screening session will be at Seahorses, in the gardens of this lovely house and art studio, on 2nd August. There will be two 25 minute sessions of short films starting at around 8pm.

This is an outdoor event and barbecue and wood fired pizza is included in the minimum suggested entry fee of £5, with proceeds going to Seahorses’ charity for Learning Disabilities. Seahorses is not licensed so you are invited to bring your own bottle/s.

The second event is on 13th and 14th September at the new Piano Café on

The first floor is a grand space with windows spanning 360 degrees with smooth wooden floor and views of the Solent. Downstairs the basement includes a black and white chessboard painted floor and Victorian iron pillars.

The Depozitory houses artist studios and hosts regular workshops, exhibitions and theatre. Look out for their Open Studio event - last year it attracted 950 visitors in four days, which was staggering for an Island art event.

“What sets us apart is our ability to gauge quality and select only the most committed artists, who we promote and market,”

said one of the Foals directors, Jo Hummel- Newell, who trained at the Royal College of Art and moved to Isle of Wight to curate the Quay Arts galleries before going solo.

Foals is a young organisation who represent the future for arts on the Island as well as representing the most prolific arts professionals who work here. Their position in Ryde also means that even day trippers wouldn’t have a problem visiting this superb space and galleries. www.foalarts.org.uk

Foal Arts

FOAL ARTS CIC ARE BASED IN A CONVERTED WESLEYAN CHAPEL ON NELSON STREET IN RYDE NOW NAMED THE DEPOZITORY

has a well-stocked gallery shop and art for sale. The New Rembrandt Gallery on Scarrots Lane, Newport, features a wide range of art including photography.Yarmouth Gallery is off of the main square, up the quaint narrow High Street, and another good space to find work by Island artists with a coastal feeling, especially owner Anne Tom’s depictions of the wild chalk cliffs.

Island artists and crafts people also exhibit at various church halls and Island events throughout the season.

This summer alone, VBG is hosting four family friendly, outdoor theatre events. From classic adventure tales such as Treasure Island to Shakespeare, visitors can enjoy the beautiful and tranquil surroundings of the Garden as well as theatre performed outdoors. Numerous art exhibitions take place in the Gallery at VBG throughout the year, showcasing the work of local artists using mediums ranging from oil, watercolour and ceramic, and the Gallery is free for all to visit offering something to enjoy whatever the weather.

Sunday 6th July Songbirds Choir perform from 10.30am to 11.30am in edulis restaurant; Monday 11th August Quantum Theatre perform Alice Through

Arts & Culture at Ventnor Botanic Garden

It’s not all about the plants and the trees at Ventnor Botanic Garden (VBG) as this verdant venue plays host to numerous arts, crafts, live music and theatre events throughout the year.

the Looking Glass at 2.30pm and The Tempest at 7pm in the New Zealand Garden; Friday 22nd August the London Contemporary Theatre perform Treasure Island at 4pm and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at 7pm in the New Zealand Garden and on Saturday 13th September The Extraordinary Travelling Film Show perform Little Shop of Horrors. www.travellingfilmshow.co.uk

Tickets for all performances are available from VBG Box Office, call (01983) 855397, option 3. VBG is open daily from 10am all year round.

For more event details please visit www.botanic.co.uk or call (01983) 855397.

Paul Windridge

seahorsesregular art & craft courses weekly drop-in sessions commissions bed & breakfast self-catering

01983 752574 seahorses-iow@tiscali.co.uk www.seahorsesisleofwight.com

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Gate Lane and there are three sessions on each day. The first from 2pm to 4pm has films that are suitable for children, the second ‘sitting’ from 7pm to 7.45pm with films rated 12 and the third is from 8.15pm to 9pm with films rated 15. Booking is advisable as there is only a 40 person capacity and tickets are just £5. For more information go to www.facebook.com/thepianocafeiow

Paul is also hoping to screen films on the seafront for Ventnor Fringe so see www.vfringe.co.uk

For something completely different you have to make a trip over to the West Wight to experience an evening of alternative films with MIST (Moving Image Sound and Things), courtesy of organiser Paul Windridge, himself an innovative film maker.

Yarmouth Gallery

Full day classes hosted by professional international wildlife photographer Karen-Jane Dudley will focus on big cats, making use of the magnificent cats at the zoo. The zoo’s official photographer, Karen-Jane is a professional photographer with specialism in African wildlife. See her portfolio atwww.k1photography.com.

Workshops give behind the scenes access at specially designed photography stations to photograph a variety of the zoo’s stunning big cats, including Zena

the white tiger and Casper the white lion, at close quarters.

Workshops are priced at £105.00 per head, student rate is £70 per head, Island Resident discounted rate £95.00 per head. Dates are: 25th May, 15th June, 29th June, 24th August - Really Wild Photography from 10am till 6pm and: 20th July and 10th August – Twilight Photography from 2pm till 8pm.

www.isleofwightzoo.com/products/really-wild-photography.aspx

The trailers are all based at an exclusive and idyllic, rural setting on the Isle of Wight. Each Airstream is lovingly restored to its original glory and fixtures and fittings are faithful to the appropriate period. As well as the Airstream caravans Vintage Vacations offer other quirkily converted buildings for holidays such as a tin church and an old Scout Hall.

Retro yoga fits beautifully with their vintage philosophy as the 1930s Women’s League of Health and Beauty

Vintage Vacations

Yoga WeekendsVintage Vacations is the perfect retro hideaway and the UK’s original Airstream caravan company.Zoo

photography workshops

If you have a keen interest in the art of wildlife photography then the Isle of Wight Zoo has the place for you, on one of their Really Wild Photography Workshops.

Carisbrooke Castle is hosting an exhibition, ‘The Isle of Wight – Men and Horses Go To War’ from May 12th, featuring Warrior our own Island war horse and John Attrill of the I.O.W Yeomanry who took his horse to war. www.carisbrookecastlemuseum.org.uk

Various events are planned to remember the First World War as it is the centenary of the outbreak of ‘The Great War’ this summer.

Memories of

WWI

Warrior, the famous horse of First World War veteran, the late Gen Jack Seely, of Mottistone Manor, was renowned for his bravery under fire and in appalling conditions. Returning with Jack Seely to his native Isle of Wight in 1918, Warrior lived on until the grand old age of 33, even winning a point to point four years to the day that he had led the charge at Moreuil Wood. His obituary in the Evening Standard in 1941 read ‘Horse the Germans Could Not Kill’: www.warriorwarhorse.com

Captain Seely’s descendants live at Mottistone Manor, which is open to the general public two days a year (Sunday/Monday over the May Bank Holiday 25th and 26th), where a painting of General Jack Seely on his horse, Warrior, can be viewed. The gardens are open from 16th March 2014. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottistone-manor-garden

Brading Roman Villa’s new gallery are hosting an exhibition ‘Last Post - Remembering the First World War’ on loan from the British Postal Museum from 4th October-31st December 2014. The exhibition explores the role of the Post Office during WW1 from the staff enlisted to fight, its role in censorship and its determination to maintain a service against all odds. www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk

This historic 18-bedroom hotel with Tithe Barns,yurts and self-catering accommodation is the ideal

base for visiting the Isle of Wight. 10% discountavailable on all bookings - please quote Island Arts

at time of booking, valid until 31/12/14.

HOW TO GET HERE WHERE TO STAY

was inspired by yoga. A retro yoga experience with a ‘Women’s League’ twist has been designed that is great exercise but also fun, very simple, and suitable for everyone, even those who have never done yoga before.

Vintage Vacations are offering the retro yoga activity break over the long weekend from Friday 19th September to Monday 22nd September 2014.

For further details visit www.getbendy.co.uk/Get_Bendy/Airstream_Yoga_Holiday.html

Red Funnel operates a frequent car ferry service from Southampton to East Cowes and a Red Jet Hi-Speed passenger only service from Southampton to West Cowes.

Their passenger vehicle ferry MV Red Falcon has undergone a major £2.2m refurbishment and now has a bright, modern and stylish new look, a 55% increase in the number of internal seats and a new sun deck and promenade walk (with wheelchair/pushchair access). There are two new passenger lounges with additional toilet and baby changing facilities, a new pet friendly lounge, child play space and designated quiet zone and air-conditioning in all passenger lounges and improved heating in winter. Flexible spaces offers the option to host live music, entertainment and meetings and there’s improved Wi-Fi and more laptop/phone charging points.

www.redfunnel.co.uk for more information and to book.

Wightlink operates a vehicle ferry service from Lymington to Yarmouth and another from Portsmouth to Fishbourne. The car ferries take around 40 minutes from Portsmouth and Lymington and on board, passengers and drivers alike can relax in the lounges and enjoy some refreshments. Or step off the train from London, hop on a Wightlink catamaran and be on the island in just 22 minutes.

The opening of the Hindhead Tunnel in Surrey has cut journey times to Portsmouth from Greater London. By contrast, Wightlink’s port at Lymington is reached by an attractive drive through the scenic New Forest. www.wightlink.co.uk for all details and booking.

Hovertravel operate Europe’s only commercial hovercraft service from Southsea Seafront to Ryde Esplanade, landing on the shore right next to Ryde’s bus & train station. The high frequency service has a journey time of just 10 minutes! Hovertravel offer great value inclusive travel & attraction, & public transport tickets, so you can see more of the Island on just one ticket.www.hovertravel.co.uk for details and booking.

You have a fantastic choice of accommodation on the Island; everything from boutique B&Bs to top class hotels; vintage caravans or shepherd’s huts to majestic manor houses. There’s something for everyone and a price range to suit every pocket. See www.visitisleofwight.co.uk for more details.

Your voyage across the Solent is the beginning of your adventure to the Isle of Wight, with or without your own vehicle.

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Design your own unique piece of jewellery with Lauren Griffiths on Saturday 20th September, learning the basic techniques of contemporary and traditional silversmithing and creating a precious silver adornment inspired by a beachcombing adventure.

Or learn contemporary felting with Gillian Chapman on Saturday 11th October. Walk

Seaview Hotel WORKSHOPS

along the coast, collecting pebbles to transform into pebble weights and seek inspiration for your own handmade felt scarf.

Arriving on Friday night, a two night stay at the Seaview Hotel is included with each workshop. www.seaviewhotel.co.uk

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The Seaview Hotel and Foal Arts are offering art and craft workshop holidays in the picturesque sailing village of Seaview.