The festival runs Friday 25 and Saturday 26 September, free, from 5pm Friday and 10.30am Saturday. Lightning, a fire-breathing dragon and the BSO are all confirmed.

Arts by the Sea is on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 September 2026, in Bournemouth town centre, and everything is free. The festival’s own FAQ page gives the start times plainly: “Things kick off around 17:00 on Friday evening, and then activities start from 10:30am on Saturday morning.”

This is the 16th edition. The theme is ELEMENTAL, and the whole line-up is now public: the final acts were announced on 3 September, so unlike most autumn events in this town, there is nothing left to wait for on the programme itself.

One thing is still missing, and it is the thing most people want. The festival map page reads “Arts by the Sea 2026 Festival Map coming soon!” There are no per-performance times published yet either, only the two daily start times above.

The after-dark programme, both nights

The evening slot in the Lower Gardens is the part that draws the crowds, and it runs on both Friday and Saturday.

  • Frequency Rider by Lords of Lightning headlines. The organisers describe it as harnessing “millions of volts of electricity”, with performers “firing multi-million-volt bolts from their bodies while transforming electrical energy into music”. Lords of Lightning is the sister company of Arcadia Spectacular.
  • Elsie the Dragon, an animatronic dragon by the artist Paka the Uncredible, “engineered with 36 distinct body movements”, with smoke and fire.
  • Rusty the Horse, Paka’s half-robotic double act, roaming the Lower Gardens.
  • Steamship Circus, a Bournemouth fire and LED collective, performing across both evenings.

Festival director Andrea Francis put the reasoning this way in the June announcement: “Across both Festival evenings, we’re creating an experience that captures that sense of collective wonder, whether audiences are gathering around a fire performance, watching lightning dance across the night sky or encountering a fire-breathing dragon.”

If you are bringing small children, note that this is the loud, bright end of the weekend. The daytime Saturday programme is the gentler one.

Music: who plays which day

From the festival’s July music announcement:

Friday

  • Gugge 2000, carnival brass and percussion, opening the weekend
  • The Centaur Stage, an open-mic venue built inside a restored vintage horsebox
  • CJP Band closing the Bandstand on Friday night, playing disco, soul, funk and jazz

Saturday

  • Pachango, Latin, reggae, funk and cumbia at the Bandstand
  • Lords of Veg Funk, who parade through the festival before their set
  • Zeñel, a London group mixing jazz, electronic, grime, afrobeats and future bass
  • Earth, Wind and Choir, Bournemouth’s Funky Little Choir with The High Priestess of Pop, closing the day
  • Evision Music Group’s AfroSounds System, showcasing local Afro and Caribbean artists

Freefall Collective open the festival on Friday night, after a Festival Welcome, with dub, reggae, drum and bass and hip hop.

The daytime shows worth planning around

The August announcement added the larger touring pieces:

  • an ensemble from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra playing a family concert, described as running from Malcolm Arnold and Vaughan Williams to Disney’s Frozen
  • Pirate Taxi by Pirates of the Carabina, outdoor circus performed in, on and around a London black cab
  • FLOOD by Theatre Témoin, a fully BSL integrated production set in a future of rising seas, in which the audience is given sound umbrellas
  • Hydropunk by Artizani, a giant gravity-powered water machine the audience has to work together to keep running
  • Roots to Rise, outdoor dance by choreographer Nandita Shankardass
  • Walk of the Dandelion by Luke Brown Company, an eight-foot puppet, with a free workshop making woollen dandelions

The 3 September announcement added the family and local strand, mostly on the Saturday: The Hide by Tilly Ingram Theatre, a birdwatching show built around G463, a disabled white-tailed eagle; Breakin’ Free, a Pavilion Dance South West piece choreographed by Hannah Malone; Read by the Sea, poetry and an open mic curated by Mayu Rousant; The Story Works, drop-in storytelling for children; and a Bournemouth & Poole College Takeover of games, photography, make-up and pop-up performance.

Three free Bite-Sized Festivals first, and one is in West Howe

Before the main weekend, the festival runs three free family days in neighbourhoods:

  • Henry Brown Youth Centre, West Howe, Saturday 5 September
  • Bourne Community Hub, Sunday 6 September
  • Townsend Community Centre, Saturday 12 September, new for 2026

Townsend is the addition this year, funded through the Without Walls network. Councillor Andy Martin, BCP’s portfolio holder for culture, said adding it “means we can reach even more local people”. West Howe has had a busy year for this sort of funding: see our piece on the West Howe Pride in Place board.

The Fringe runs for a fortnight afterwards

Arts by the Sea Fringe runs Sunday 27 September to Sunday 11 October, hosted by independent venues around the town, with live music, theatre, comedy and exhibitions. Venues were still being invited to sign up when we checked, so the Fringe listings will fill out later than the main programme.

The Fringe’s closing weekend collides with Run Bournemouth on 10 and 11 October, which closes roads along the seafront and the overcliff, so plan those two days as one.

Access

The festival publishes more access detail than most events here, and the useful parts are:

  • Performances are in The Square and the Lower Gardens. Both are level. The Square is the easiest way in; approaching from Westover Road involves slopes.
  • The Lower Gardens has a permanent Changing Places toilet in the public toilet block, and the festival adds a second staffed between midday and 6pm on Saturday.
  • Accessible toilets are also at Bournemouth Central East Promenade next to Harry Ramsden’s, the Pier entrance, floor 1 of Richmond Gardens multi-storey car park, and Bournemouth Library in The Triangle.
  • Sound-cancelling ear defenders are available free at the Information Point in the Lower Gardens, which is marked by a flag.
  • Quieter spaces are near the beach and in the Central Gardens.
  • Dogs are welcome across the whole festival site. Separately, between 1 May and 30 September dogs are banned from most of the beach and must be on a lead on the promenades, so the 25 and 26 September dates fall inside that restriction.
  • Accessible viewing areas are flagged and marked on the festival map, which is the map that has not been published yet.

Access queries go to culture@bcpcouncil.gov.uk or 01202 128121.

Getting there and parking

The festival site is the pedestrianised heart of town, so the honest advice is not to drive into it. Bournemouth station is about 30 minutes on foot. Morebus serves the town centre, and there are Beryl bikes and secure stands on site, with D-locks recommended.

The festival’s own travel page does not name a car park, it just links BCP’s car park finder. Our Bournemouth parking prices page has the central tariffs, including Richmond Gardens, which is the multi-storey with the accessible toilet on floor 1. Check roadworks and travel before you set off, because town-centre bus improvement works have had Exeter Road, Bourne Avenue, Westover Road, Gervis Place, Old Christchurch Road and Glen Fern Road under restriction through 2026 under a BCP traffic order.

No road closure order specific to the festival had been published on the Public Notice Portal when we checked on 3 September.

What is still to come

  • The festival map, which the site says is coming soon. It carries the zone numbers and the accessible viewing areas.
  • Individual performance times. Only the 5pm Friday and 10.30am Saturday start times are published. The organisers say “further programme announcements will be made in the coming weeks”.
  • The Fringe listings, which depend on venues signing up.

Sources