Southbourne Round up 2024

This is the first time we’ve written a roundup of the year and what a perfect time to reflect on where we live, our community and everything that we are so lucky to have on our doorstep. We’d love to hear from you and your ideas so why not send us a message or a DM on our Instagram page Visit Southbourne for more of what you’d like to see happening in Southbourne.

Southbourne is such a lovely blend of community and businesses that mix together to make our area so distinctive and a wonderful place to live.

Not everyone seems know how or when the mini events happen, so we are going to try and work harder to share the message with you as soon as we can. If you’re signed up to the newsletter that’s great and if you know someone who wants to hear the local news get them signed up and help spread the word.

The majority of the activity in Southbourne is run by the community. Everyone on the Grove takes it upon themselves to make things happen and keep the mix interesting for us all. The other bits that occur are either seed funded or totally funded by Costal BID with the support of local businesses and volunteers that keep Southbourne a great place to live.

So, what did we get up to last year?

Easter Egg Trail:

To kickstart the year, the Boscombe & Southbourne Rotary Club with the support of Bournemouth Coastal BID, dedicated their time and creativity to organise a family-friendly Easter Egg Hunt.

The eggs were all placed in shops for families to hunt down and the Green was the hub once again with face painting, the Bournemouth Goats and donkeys on the Green to come and say hello to. This annual event was a fun-filled day that welcomed families, friends, and visitors into Southbourne.

Comedy Festival:

For Father’s Day Coastal BID alongside Black Cherry brought you a weekend filled with laughs from the 14th - 16th June. Some highlight acts were Paul McCaffery as seen on Live at the Apollo, as well as award-winning comedians performing in our local venues. A highlight of the event had to be the King of Dad Jokes competition.

Pumpkin Carving Competition:

To celebrate Halloween, Coastal BID are in their second year of providing over 100 pumpkins to local businesses for free supplied by Sopley Farm. The local community really got together and the Boscombe and Southbourne Rotary helped by local Coastal BID directors Dan from Velo Domestique and Vicky from Makla to distribute the pumpkins. This was an awesome friendly competition between local traders with the best shop pumpkin, voted for by the public winning £200. It was great to see everyone get involved, new shops and old, and see everyone showcasing their creativity. Some shoutouts include Gen from Ameera Tailoring who went all out again this year building a Pirate ship pumpkin with sails to go with the zombie shop mannequins, Mr Barbers pulled out all the stops too they had an autumnal wheelbarrow filled with their carved pumpkins and spooky music music blasting to set the atmosphere for the Grove, Alison from Sugar Mango hand painted eyeballs which went all around her window, had a gravestone and 3 pink pumpkins which she spent all night working on! And there were honestly so many more that we could mention as everyone did such a fantastic job. But the winner this year, was Mark’s Meats with their gruesome pig head pumpkin. 

The voting was done on a token-based allocation from the public, so if you want to see your favourite trader win some £ next year come along and vote, hopefully we’ll see you later this year and we look forward to seeing what everyone creates for this year!

Moving Monster Trail:

Having had tentacles crawling on the roof of Ludo Lounge last year we complimented the monster theme in 2024 with something a little bit more interactive for the families.

This year Bournemouth Coastal BID introduced an augmented reality Moving Monster Trail, a fun, interactive trail for both kids and adults. 10 posters with QR codes were put up in shops across the high street. You had to hunt for all 10 monsters and collect them all through scanning the QR codes. There were over 260 participants with a total of 53k calories burnt. Did you manage to collect them all? Which monster was your favourite?

Here are photos of all the monsters in their locations for you to guess where they were hidden if you didn’t manage to complete the trail.

Poppies:

And as luck would have it on the day of the pumpkin competition the local Bournemouth Secret Knitters revealed themselves and approached Visit Southbourne to ask for some help to complete a secret mission. The mission was to find a way to put up a huge hanging cascade of Poppies for Remembrance Day. And just like that they were up on the Green with the help of some local heroes who volunteered their support.

Christmas on the Green:

Finally, to end the year off on a high we had the annual Christmas on the Green. This family fun day was organised by local volunteers, Nigel and Heather from Margery Daw, The Southbourne and Boscombe Rotary Club, Barbara and so many more who always volunteer their time for the community along with Bournemouth Coastal BID. This event included live music, giant toy soldiers walking around, the famous Bournemouth Goats and festive donkeys. It wouldn’t be Christmas without Santa though and Santa’s grotto made sure to make sure that Southbourne wasn’t missed off his world tour. The nativity play and Santa’s post box on the Green encourages him to keep coming back to Southbourne, so don’t forget to post your letter to him later this year at the special postbox he leaves there. Bellies were filled with candy floss and popcorn, and everyone got a chance to raise some funds for next years events with teas, coffees and cakes.

The highlight of the day had to be local singing group The Funky Choir, led by the lovely Sandie, who rocked up and gave a surprise performance for local Hero, suggested by the public, Heather for all her work for the community. If you caught the moment, you would have felt the love, and it was so nice to see her recognised for what she has contributed to where she lives.

So many elements come into making our area what it is. We’ve only listed the ones that we’ve been involved with organising. But a huge shout out to everyone who make all the mini events throughout the year happen such as The Larder House, The Wight Bear, The Fez, Parlourmentary, Velo Domestique, Syd Slaps, SOBO Sommelier, The Outback, The Brewhouse, The Grove, Harry’s Coffee House, Little Perth, Dicky’s, SOBO Fish and all the other entertainment that makes us so unique.

We love where we live and if you’d like to let us know of any events that are happening on the Grove let us know.

OR if you have any cool ideas for Southbourne Grove, get in touch!