Yuletide is Upon Us: A month of Eastbourne Festivities

The festive season is well and truly under way, and Eastbourne has plenty on offer for all, this Christmas period. From quaint markets serving up edible delights and hand crafted gifts; to opera, ballet and Rat Pack Christmas classics being performed on theatre stages across Eastbourne. The Sunshine Coast sure knows how to do Christmas, but can we bring snow?

Yes! Well almost. Druisilla’s Park switches on its Winter Wonderland Illuminations at 16.30 on Saturday November 29, transporting visitors to a magical ice-capped Kingdom where penguins and polar bears made of dazzling lights, will be animated for a 20 minute illumination display every day until January 4, perfectly synchronized to festive and pop music. 

Children (and adults) can also meet and hug a Husky dog, Hello Kitty, Santa’s Reindeer, Christmas elves and Santa himself – there really is so much on offer at Drusilla’s this Christmas; it will make the perfect Winters day out for family festivities.

Shopping locally for your Christmas gifts couldn’t be easier, with numerous Christmas markets and crafts fairs dotted around the town. ‘Meads Magic’ in Meads Village is happening from 14.30 this Friday 28 November. As well as the delightful food stalls and unique seasonal gifts, Christmas magic will be brought to Meads in the form of live street music from the Swing Ninjas. Santa will be making another trip to Eastbourne especially for the magical Meads event. 

Another charming corner of Eastbourne, Little Chelsea, will be holding their ‘Little Christmas’ outdoor market on Friday 5 December between 17.30 and 22.00. South Street will be taken over by market stalls, offering more traditional gifts, festive culinary delights, rides and attractions. Various street performers will keep Christmas spirits high with entertainment throughout the entire evening. Real life reindeer will be travelling down from the North Pole with Santa (again) to meet and greet one and all.

For another alternative evening of shopping, the Towner Art Gallery is holding an ‘After Hours Christmas Shopping’ event on Tuesday December 2, 18.00-21.00. You’ll find more unique Christmas treasures for your friends and families gifts, and receive mulled wine and mince pies, complimentary of the gallery.

Visitors to Eastbourne can make a night, a weekend or a whole week of it. There are a number of very welcoming hotels who love to welcome in guests at Christmas, with some brilliant offers on for the festive period. The Langton’s, a Victorian seafront guest house, have 20% off of a three night stay or more until March 30. The Royal is a beautiful and charming hotel with offers on 6 and 7 night stays. All available hotels and B&B’s can be booked online at http://www.visiteastbourne.com/accommodation/

For those that like to keep active, even throughout the gluttonous month of December, the Santa Fun Run and Walk is happening on Sunday December 7. All runners will be decked out in Santa’s suits (he’s a fashion role model), and be rewarded with a mince pie at the end of their promenade run. More details about can be found at www.events.myastheniagravis.co.uk/SantaEastbourne.

The Christmas theatre season is packed out, catering for all musical tastes, and age groups. Classical dance fans will be mesmerised by Russian State Ballet and Opera House productions of Gisele at the Congress on Friday 5 December, and The Nutcracker, a favourite Christmas story, on Saturday 6 December. Beauty and The Beast is the pantomime not to be missed this season, and with a whole month of performances, there is no excuse. See it at the Devonshire Park Theatre between December 12 and January 11. The Rat Pack Big Band will be bringing Sinatra seasonal classics and more hits from 1950’s America, to the Congress on December 23. For a full theatres list and to book tickets visit www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk.

And the grand finale of festivities is the trio of annual free Bandstand concerts. Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day will be celebrated in traditional Eastbourne style at our unique Bandstand. A Christmas vacation in Eastbourne would be incomplete without experiencing at least one of these concerts, if not all. The Eastbourne Silver Band will grace the Bandstand stage on Christmas Day, caroling the morning away. Boxing Day and New Year’s at the Bandstand promises two fun and lively concerts from the Ray Campbell Dance Band, joyfully rounding off Eastbourne’s festive season.

There is no better place to be this December, than the Sunshine Coast – Merry Christmas One and All!

Eastbourne Celebrates With a Month of Festive Fun Events

Eastbourne will be full of festive fun this December with a month long Christmas events programme of shopping events, free concerts and a winter wonderland of theme park illuminations at Drusillas Park, designed by the ‘King of Christmas Lights’.

Featuring real reindeer, huskies, street markets, cookie decorating, an outdoor town centre performance stage and a wide selection of Santa’s Grotto’s, Eastbourne will celebrate in style, culminating in a free Christmas Day concert at the iconic seafront bandstand.

Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism & Leisure, Cllr Carolyn Heaps said “This is our busiest programme of Christmas events ever and it is fantastic to see so many businesses working together to put on such a fantastic show for the local community and the many visitors who celebrate their Christmas in the town.”

Kicking off the month long celebration, the Enterprise Shopping Centre open their weekend Santa’s Grotto on 1 December with a Christmas gift fair and complimentary mulled wine, along with the chance to return on 15 December to meet the lovable real reindeer. 

Real Reindeer at Enterprise Shopping centre

Santa takes up weekend residence at Sharnfold Farm from 1 December, and at Seven Sisters Country Park Visitor Centre, make lanterns, garlands and Christmas decorations in A Touch of Frost, suitable for children and adults alike.

For craft fans, head to the Redoubt fortress 1 – 2 December to make Victorian inspired Christmas decorations, part of the Eastbourne Christmas Artist Open Houses event taking place across the town.

Nearby Drusillas Park opens up Santa’s Christmas Cottage with the chance to hug a husky and view their brand new Winter Wonderland Illuminations from 1 December – 6 January with over 60,000 lights designed by Channel 4’s ‘King of Christmas Lights’ Paul Toole, in an animal themed display and synchronised to festive music.

Winter Wonderland Illuminations at Drusillas Park

Over 400 Santa’s hit the seafront on 2 December in the annual Santa Fun Run, jingling all the way in a 3 mile jog raising money for charity, and on 4 - 5 and 7 - 8 December, the Russian State Ballet and Opera House bring their magical production of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty to the Congress Theatre.

The weekly Christmas street market continues in Eastbourne town centre every Wednesday from 5 December, and on 6 December, new event Meads Magic in the heart of Meads village celebrates with Santa’s grotto, shopping, Christmas cookie decorating and more.  In the town centre, Centre Stage - a brand new outdoor stage featuring live entertainment from 3pm begins, along with mall entertainment in the Arndale Shopping Centre and late night shopping every Thursday until Christmas.

Little Chelsea Christmas

Little Christmas returns to the heart of Little Chelsea on 7 December with fairground rides, Santa’s grotto, real reindeer, treasure trails, hog roast and live music, and in the heart of Eastbourne’s Historic Old Town, HOT Christmas festivities on 8 December include street market, jugglers, choirs, Santa and Christmas crafts.

Over 2,000 primary school children from across East Sussex perform the Great Big Christmas Sing 11 – 13 December at the Congress Theatre, in a fun retelling of the nativity featuring Dinkey the amusing teenage donkey and a frantic Joseph, who late on Christmas Eve has forgotten to buy his present for Mary.

From 13 December to 13 January, Christmas wouldn’t be complete without the traditional and highly acclaimed Eastbourne pantomime, starring Bernie Nolan at the Devonshire Park Theatre, this year’s spectacular performance features a fun filled jaunt through the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty.

Santa opens up his grotto at Knockhatch Adventure Park from 15 December each weekend with soft play, quad-a-pillar rides and farm, and at the Congress Theatre on 18 December join Christmas with the Rat Pack and experience the sounds of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin at the famous Sands hotel, featuring seasonal classics such as White Christmas and Baby It’s Cold Outside.

Give the kids a treat the weekend before Christmas and join the Santa Special at Eastbourne Miniature Steam Railway 22 – 23 December with train rides to Santa’s Grotto and festive drinks and mince pies for mums and dads.

On Christmas Day the iconic seafront Bandstand welcomes thousands of festive fans for a pre-dinner treat in a free Christmas Day Bandstand concert, featuring carols and traditional yuletide hits.  The first in a triple bill of festive concerts which continue on Boxing Day and New Years Day, the second of which is followed by a Boxing Day Walking Tour at 12.30 and 2.30pm by local tour guide Harry Pope, featuring historical and amusing anecdotes along the way.

Christmas Conga at The Bandstand

Towner, contemporary art museum, celebrate the winter season with their brand new Bon hiver exhibition, running from 1 December until 3 March, including star of the Tate Turbine Hall, Olafur Eliasson, and his installation ‘The Forked Forest Path’.

For more information on all Christmas events, plus opening times and prices, telephone 0871 663 0031 or visit www.visiteastbourne.com.

The second half of our interview with Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan...

Yesterday we brought you the first half of our interview with Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan as he's coming to Eastbourne on Friday 9 December to launch his debut fine art collection at Viewpoint Art Gallery, 38 South Stree, at the Little Christmas event. Read the rest of our interview and discover what Neil's best ever art attack was!

So Neil, you’re coming to Eastbourne for one of our favourite Christmas events, Little Christmas – we want to know what your favourite Christmas song is?
Well my favourite Christmas song is exactly the same as my favourite Christmas movie – it’s White Christmas! We have a movie tradition in my family where every Christmas Eve we watch White Christmas.

Of course we can’t interview you and not mention Art Attack! I was a huge fan when I was younger and watched every week, as did many of our followers! What was your best ever art attack?
When Art Attack became very successful we got to travel far and wide to go massive art attacks! We went to New York, Austria, Barbados! When the producers called me and asked if I had any ideas for a Christmas special, I was like how about a surfing Santa in Barbados? They said ‘yeah, sounds great!’

But in the UK my favourite was the portrait of the Queen, which I did using a quarter of a million pounds in £10 notes that the Bank of England loaned to us and charged us £50 interest. I thought that was pretty good!

Have you ever done an Art Attack in Eastbourne?
Yeah, we did. It was right next to the Pier and we did something on the beach in pebbles, it was something with a nautical theme. I’m trying to think now… it might have been a fishing scene on the beach… it was either a fishing scene or a big picture of a fish.

It was great. Everywhere I went I had this mobile Winnebago where I could sit and shelter in the rain, have lunch and all that. It was when my daughter was in her first year at Eastbourne College and she came down and we had fish and chips from the Pier in the Winnebago.

I’m looking forward to the Little Chelsea Little Christmas event in a few weeks because I’ll actually have the chance to get out and wander round a bit. I’ve driven through so many times, it will make a change to actually have a look.

Christmas is a great time for kids to get creative – what’s your best tip for making Christmas cards and any other tips for hand made gifts?
They’re a lot cheaper! Seriously whatever you’re doing just remember it doesn’t need to be perfect, it just has to be made with love and whoever you’re giving it to should be able to recognise that.

Finally, if we were to buy you the best present ever this Christmas, what would it be?
I love questions that I’ve never been asked before because it makes me have to think! God, that’s hard! I want to say something gratuitous and not correct in a P.C. sort of way. I wanna say something for me!

I think the best Christmas present I have ever had is a game of Subbuteo table football. What I did is I found it under Mum and Dad’s bed and took it out and played with it and then wrapped it back up every day! This was over about two weeks before Christmas! I loved it so much.

When I was 13 I had this fantastic Subbuteo collection. I had a team of 32 that cost 10 shillings each, that’s about 50p today. It really was the best present ever but I sold the lot for £3 and bought a Black Sabbath album!

So you know what I’m going to say! I’d like Subbuteo back place and my present to you is a Black Sabbath album, slightly used and slightly worn…!

What happened when we caught up with Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan!

Art Attack was one of my favourite TV shows growing up and I watched avidly each week to see if there were any ideas I could somehow weave into my GCSE art work. You could imagine my delight when I was offered the chance to interview Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan to find out what he's been up to since the show finished and why we'll have the chance to meet him in person in Eastbourne next month as he visits Viewpoint Art Gallery, 38 South Street to launch his new series of paintings, Hope Street...

So Neil, you’re coming to Eastbourne on Friday 9th December to Viewpoint Art Gallery for the Little Christmas event – are you excited about your visit to Eastbourne?

I actually come down to Eastbourne an awful lot. My son’s at the College in his final year and my daughter went there too so I’m actually a regular! I know Eastbourne and I know Prezzo very well as I meet my son there for lunch!

And am I excited? Yes! I love it in Eastbourne, especially the twinkling lights on the seafront!

Tell us about Hope Street and how it came about…After 17 years of Art Attack, 20 series, 500 shows and 2,000 drawings of dogs, cats, sharks, footballs etc. I thought enough is enough. I’d said everything I had to say on telly and wanted to do something for myself. This is actually my very first fine art collection, my first grown up art. I had a blank canvas and I could do whatever I wanted.

With working in kids’ TV I decided to look at my own childhood and take a trip down memory lane as I’m very into nostalgia. I decided to paint childhood.

The paintings have two characters and I’m asked is it me? The answer is it’s whoever you want it to be. There are no faces; it’s from angles where you can’t see the face so it’s for you to decide. It depends on who you are and if you’ve had that memory yourself. I wanted to touch people’s imagination and tweak a reminder in them.

I felt when I was a kid there was a lot more hope and things were much simpler. So Hope Street is a state of mind, it’s not a place. I lived in an era when to me it was always summer, no one ever died, there was no divorce. I’m sure that wasn’t the actual case but to me, things were a lot simpler. You could climb a tree or have a conker fight without being sued.

Though, coincidentally I actually went to school on Hope Street. My school was on Hope Street but that’s just a coincidence!

The Hope Street collection is a nice place to be.

What is your favourite piece in Hope Street & why?
Ooh that’s a difficult one! Well as you know at the moment I’m touring galleries and although I get asked that, when I meet people I like to ask them what their favourite is and do my own market research!

I have a relationship with every single one of the paintings in the collection. I painted them very quickly because I was using acrylic, which is a quick drying medium so I had to work quickly.

Painting the collection was a passionate experience. I see different things in each picture and can’t pick a favourite. There are some I absolutely love but I hate one bit in it!

They are all labours of love. It took five months to do the whole collection, including research. I went back to Liverpool where I grew up; in fact, my mum still lives there, and took a week to wander round. I wanted the pictures to show situations I used to be in.

And art isn’t your only passion is it? Tell us about your band?
No, my first love was music! Music is what flows through my veins. Growing up in Liverpool, you either wanted to be a footballer or a popstar and I wanted to do both! But at the age of 14, I discovered the two g’s – guitars and girls and I pursued both!

I was in a band and we won the first ever Battle of the Bands in the UK, which I suppose in the old days was like the X Factor is now. We got a record deal and were playing in front of 20,000 people in huge American stadiums. But we were very young and got very ripped off. We were involved in a legal battle for two years and that’s when I went into telly.

But to cut a long story short, all of the band members have recently celebrated a big birthday! I’m not going to tell you what birthday it is but I’m sure you can work it out! We got back together for fun but it turned serious and we’ve made an album and in between the gallery tours, I’m on tour with the band!

The band’s called Marseille so if you fancy taking a look at the Art Attack guy with longer hair and wearing leather trousers then come along! Our tour dates are on our website at http://www.marseilleonline.co.uk/.

But one of the reasons for doing Hope Street is because I used to always get asked can I really draw or paint? You know if there was another guy doing it all then why didn’t they put him on the telly? So Hope Street proves yes, I can do it and people can go on the website and judge for themselves.

So that's it for the first half of our interview but come back later this week when we'll post the rest and let you in on Neil's favourite ever Art Attack as well as what he'd most like for Christmas!
Emma