If you ever wanted to catch a glimpse of Sandown Bay and the Isle of Wight Biosphere’s natural diversity, its extraordinary environmental and arts-based creativity, scientific knowhow, community colour and musical magical talent all in one place, then your best bet is to head along to join in with the annual celebration, Hullabaloo!
Two-day extravaganza
Each year, this grassroots, two-day extravaganza spreads across the most unusual area of coastal public realm in Sandown, showcasing the Deco Browns Golf Course and its wild fringes, tucked between the Wildheart Sanctuary and the Dinosaur Museum, all by the sea and within site of the AONB.
Hullabaloo went Lite this year, with a pop-up response to the times – a small but beautiful curation of arts, nature, science, walks, talks and micro-carnival. 2,000 people came to this gentle autumnal version of the otherwise May event which attracts over 12,000 people to Sandown.
Discovery Bay marquee
Visitors could share the Discovery Bay marquee with real wildlife, meeting hedgehogs and Malaysian stick insects and exploring local natural history specimens (live or not so much!) under a vast array of microscopes.
There was the opportunity to learn more about the Biosphere and rewilding projects for beavers and eagles or to learn about swifts and how you can help with the IWNHAS and Young Naturewatch IW.
Carnival arts
Alongside this warm and welcoming way to explore your local environment in real life once again, came the complete and utter mayhem of carnival arts and making!
With a live stage and spread wide around Browns, Batala and Island drum parades, dance, magicians, home-made kite flying and picnics made this both a spectacle and fun for all the family.
The Cardboard Challenge was back with the Battle of the Bands with Elvis and David Bowie’s cardboard versions making a special and squashed appearance.
The Talk Tent
New for this year was the Talk Tent with its programme of speakers and with the launch of The Common Space’s IRIS Manifesto, inspiring revival in Sandown.
At night, Browns hosted the cultural body, Island Collection, while the Talk Tent transformed into the Moon, Music, Moths event’s acoustic music and night-time wildlife.
A Site of Nature Conversation
Ian Boyd at Arc and The Common Space commented,
“We’re all really enjoyed helping to curate the Talk Tent from day to night… so much so that we’d like to designate Hullabaloo as a Site of Nature Conversation in future!”
Fun, thought-provoking, mind-bending and deeply philosophical
Richard Grogan, Isle of Wight AONB said,
“Hullabaloo Lite is such an excellent mix of fun and thought-provoking, mind-bending deeply philosophical discussion and all full of people enjoying themselves!
“We’re pleased to have been able to support the event with the help of Interreg European Funding.”
George: Thanks to everyone
Sharon George, Shademakers UK commented,
“All of the Shademakers team would like to say a big thank you to everyone for once again producing or coming to this lovely family event in our wonderful town of Sandown.
“All through the weekend, I looked around and thought ‘how lucky are we to live in this beautiful landscape’, and seeing families play together, people enjoying themselves. We’re hoping to return to the full extra-large Hullabaloo next year, but October and Biology Week lent such a different feel that we hope to save those dates too.
“Thanks to the Isle of Wight AONB and Interreg for believing in us and to Browns for hosting, and Arc for sharing your home with us.”
Watch the short film
You can catch a short glimpse of Hullabaloo Lite 2021 below.
Take the survey
Have you been to Hullabaloo, Hullabaloo at Home or this year’s Hullabaloo Lite?
We’d love to get your feedback and your ideas for ramping our Science and Arts celebration RIGHT UP in the future!
Please take a few minutes to fill in our survey.
News shared by Lily George on behalf of Hullabaloo. Ed
All Images: © Julian Winslow
