Kent's Coastal Week

Kent's Coastal Week 2012 will be from Saturday 27 October to Sunday 4 November.

Review of 2011

The 2011 programme was the busiest ever with around 70 events taking place and around 9,000 people taking part. 35 partners were involved in organising the events.

The aim of the programme is “to celebrate Kent's coast by attracting more visitors, facilitating public engagement and understanding and promoting long term sustainable enjoyment and management of our coastline.”

The message for 2011 was “Creative Coast” linking in with the opening year for Turner Contemporary, Margate and other creative initiatives.

Events took place in every coastal district, the KCC Coastal Officer co-ordinates and promotes the programme.   For 2009 - 12, Kent’s Coastal Week is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund INTERREG IVA 2 Seas programme and is part of the CAST project (Coastal Actions for Sustainable Tourism).

Additional sponsorship has been gratefully received by London Array and Southern Water, who are also active partners in the programme

Creative Coast at Whitstable 22 – 23 October 2011

Whitstable is one of the most popular venues on the Kent coast and the sunny weather across the two days ensured a huge audience for the event with an estimated 7,000 attending. 

On both days the public got the chance to make unique pebbles which will be used to brighten up a corner of the harbour.  This activity was led by local artists co-ordinated by Roger Seijo of Whitstable Improvement Trust.

Whitstable Harbour Village was open – a community of artists, artisans and independent retailers.

Saturday 22: Cartoonist Dave Chisholm (Daily Mail and Times) was at work drawing cartoons inspired by the Forgotton Frontline displays set up by Timescapes.

Animate and Create - made sea slugs from plasticine with children and they also had the opportunity to create sea creatures from air drying clay with artist Janet Darnley.

Local Whitstable artists and representatives from Horsebridge Centre and Whitstable Castle were on hand to talk about their work.

Sunday 23: Southern Water (sponsors) demonstrated coastal gardening, using colourful creative mulches to conserve water.

London Array (sponsors) demonstrated how wind turbines work and made “whirligigs “with family groups.

Canterbury City Council’s “Shore is a load of rubbish” display featured a life-size beach hut entirely made from recycled bottles found on the shoreline.  This display was complimented by an information stand set up by Marine Conservation Society.

Creative people from key venues Turner Contemporary in Margate and Creative Quarter at Folkestone also led on creative activities activities.

Kent’s Creative Coast Team provided information about creative venues and

opportunities to be creative in Kent’s coastal towns.

In addition to these activities, live entertainment was provided across the two days; music featured celtic duo Camine and poetry readings came from poet Dan Simpson, who gave a recital of the “I love Kent Coast” poem which was “crowd sourced” on the social networking site “twitter” during the lead up to Further information available at www.kentscreativecoast.co.uk

Kent’s Coastal Week 2012 will have the theme of “Historic Coast” – keep and eye on these pages for further updates or email kent.coasts@kent.gov.uk if you would like to get involved with running an event.

Kent’s Coastal Week events are organised by a host of local organisations, coordinated by Kent County Council, the programme is entirely supported through external funding from the European regional development programme. (2007 - 2013 European Regional Development Fund INTERREG IVA 2 Seas programme), along with sponsorship from Southern Water and London Array.