One of my interviews was undertaken with Sorted Surf Festival manager
Brad Predley, at the Sorted Surf Shop on Boscombe beach. The regeneration to
the area is pretty spectacular, with restaurants right on the foot of the beach
and surfers galore on the Artificial Surf Reef. It seemed a whole different
word away from the previous research I had conducted in town. I found myself
researching into the divides between regenerated communities and the pre-regeneration
residents, and nothing seemed so apparent to me as this obvious community
divide. With the wealthy coming down to enjoy their beach pods on Boscombe
beach as the community feels the recession pinch, there’s no wonder that the
Boscombe Regeneration Project hadn’t had a positive impact on ‘their’ Boscombe.
It highlighted to me that can and should be events the integration of
these two communities. The Sorted Surf Festival clearly does this well by
hosting a free event day that appeals to all markets from families, to surfers,
to teenagers, and adults coming to see activities going on.
And not just summer events, events held throughout the seasons. I was
shocked to learn that Boscombe doesn’t have its own Christmas lights parade or
an event to that effect. These sort of events are what my childhood was made up
of, wrapping up warm and watching Santa in the parade. Or even going with your
school and displaying your Christmas arts and crafts in the town. If I was to implement events in Boscombe, it’s
would be events to this effect as I believe these types of events that encourage
community spirit in a town.
Even despite the lack of events, there was no solid marketing base for
events to market themselves on. This issue seemed more apparent to me than the
lack of events. Even if event were implemented in Boscombe, there would be
nowhere to specifically market them to both the local community and potential
tourists. To me the case study had to fix the root of the problem first so
create a base line for a successful events industry. Here arose the ‘Boscombehub’.
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