Culture
Bournemouth is a tourist and regional centre for leisure, entertainment, culture and recreation. The award-winning Central Gardens are a separate major public park, leading for several miles down the valley of the River Bourne through the centre of the town to the sea (reaching the sea at Bournemouth Pier) and include the Pleasure Gardens and the area surrounding the Pavilion and the now closed IMAX Cinema. It has a thriving youth culture, including a large university population and many language school students. With the advent of the Boscombe Overstrand, the seeds of a dynamic new business culture revolving around new media and surfing have begun to emerge. Bournemouth also has a well-established gay scene comprising a cluster of bars, restaurants, the Bondi (the South's only exclusively GLBT Hotel) and nightclubs all centred around the Triangle in the centre of the town. Bournemouth is known for its popularity with pensioners and it has many residential care homes.
In recent years, Bournemouth has become a popular nightlife destination with UK tourists. Many clubs, bars and restaurants are located within the town centre. Bliss, Chilli White, Lava & Ignite and Mary Shelley operate on St. Peter's Road. In addition, 'V', the converted St. Andrew's Church, since April 2009 has become very popular within the town's night time entertainment.
The Bournemouth International Centre (BIC), is a popular venue for the conferences of the major political parties. The centre hosted the Labour Party conference in 2003 and 2007, the Conservative Party conference in 2006, and the Liberal Democrat conference in 2008 and 2009 The BIC also hosts theatrical productions and musical concerts.
The Russell-Cotes Museum is located just to the east of the Central Gardens near the Pavilion Theatre and next to the Royal Bath Hotel. The museum includes many 19th century paintings and the family collections acquired when travelling especially in Japan and Russia. It was Russell Cotes who successfully campaigned to have a promenade built; it runs continuously along the Bournemouth and Poole shoreline.
The town was a major centre for the 1951 Festival of Britain with classical concerts, opera, ballet and a visit from the Salzburg Marionettes; the two weeks in June also featured a national brass band competition, sea cadet displays and different sporting events.
Bournemouth is currently host to several annual festivals. The town has had an annual literary festival since 2005. A Gay Pride festival named Bourne Free is held in the town each year during the summer.
Since 2008 Bournemouth has held its own air festival over four days in August. This has featured displays from the Red Arrows as well as appearances from the Yakovlevs, Blades, Team Guinot Wing-Walkers, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight including Lancaster, Hurricane, Spitfire and also the last flying Vulcan. The festival has also seen appearances from modern aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon. The air festival attracts nearly one million people over the four-day event.
The town was especially rich in literary associations during the late 19th century and earlier years of the 20th century. Oscar Wilde and Paul Verlaine both taught at Bournemouth preparatory schools. Bournemouth appears as Sandbourne in Thomas Hardy's novels. Tess lived in Sandbourne with Alec d'Urberville, and the town also features in The Well-Beloved and Jude the Obscure. It is also mentioned in So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, the fourth book of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. In James Herbert's horror novel The Fog, the entire population of Bournemouth runs into the sea and drowns in a mass suicide. In Andy McDermott's thriller The Secret of Excalibur, a car chase through the town centre and beach front leads to the destruction of the IMAX Cinema. It is also mentioned in Roald Dahl's The Witches as the setting for the Hotel Magnificent. In Jacqueline Wilson's 1997 book, The Lottie Project, it is said that the main characters visit Bournemouth and the Russell Coates Museum. In Peter Weir's highly acclaimed 1975 film adaptation of Joan Lindsay's enigmatic 1968 novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, bygone holidays at Bournemouth are wistfully recalled by Mrs. Appleyard (played by Rachel Roberts), headmistress of Mrs. Appleyard's College for Girls, in Australia.
The cover of the Beatles' second album "With The Beatles" was photographed in Bournemouth. It was taken at the Palace Court Hotel by Robert Freeman during the group's week-long summer season in August 1963 at the Gaumont Cinema on Westover Road.
The cover sleeve for "All Around the World" by Oasis was shot at Bournemouth, it features four of the bandmates standing on the beach and looking up towards to the sky, while the words "All Around The World" are written in the sand.
The indie rock band Air Traffic are from Bournemouth. They released 3 top 40 singles in 2007.
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Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“The genius of American culture and its integrity comes from fidelity to the light. Plain as day, we say. Happy as the day is long. Early to bed, early to rise. American virtues are daylight virtues: honesty, integrity, plain speech. We say yes when we mean yes and no when we mean no, and all else comes from the evil one. America presumes innocence and even the right to happiness.”
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—John Dewey (1859–1952)