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Vintage by the Sea
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A timeless celebration of the vintage decades against the backdrop of Morecambe’s spectacular seafront
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Date
September 2014 to 2024
Location
Morecambe Seafront
Partner
Vintage by the Sea is a Vintage Festival brand, Produced & Curated by Deco Publique in Partnership with Lancaster City Council
Awards
Winner - Visit Lancashire Large Tourism Event of the Year Award, 2023
Finalist - Visit Lancashire Large Tourism Event of the Year Award, 2018
Finalist / UK Festival Awards, 2016
Highly Commended / Visit England Large Tourism Event of the Year Award 2014
Highlight
Producing a festival in Deco Publique’s home town makes it even more special. We see our locality transformed and we see the positive, cultural, economic and social benefits of the festival play out throughout the year.
In 2013 we approached Wayne & Gerardine Hemingway MBE with a proposition to bring their Vintage Festival brand to Morecambe, and in a celebration of the Midland Hotel’s 80th anniversary - together we created Vintage by the Sea.
Deco Publique have since co-curated and produced the award-winning festival helping it to become an established name on the UK's cultural events calendar. Described by The Guardian as one of the ‘Top Five Retro Events in the World’, the festival now attracts 40,000+ visitors per year with thirty-four percent travelling from outside the region, attracts approximately a million pounds of economic impact into Morecambe and supports full hotel capacity across the district.
The festival perfectly showcases Deco Publique's ethos - bringing a high quality programme of performance, art, food, music and markets to Morecambe in a way that intimately integrates with its community and place.
Every September the seafront provides a stunning backdrop for a programme of cultural content inspired by the 1920s to the 2000s - including an exceptional lineup of classic cars, cocktails, vintage and design marketplaces, DJ sets, Best in Show fashion parades, workshops, street food and walkabout performance. The programme develops every year, with previous highlights including a Battle-of-Britain Memorial Flypast, art trail, Vintage Pooch Parade, a curated music and art programme and an outreach project with The Sands Care Home.
Delivered in partnership with Lancaster City Council - Vintage by the Sea is supported with funding from Lancaster City Council, Morecambe Town Council and Arts Council England.
Vintage by the Sea - Highlights Gallery
Project Areas
Research | Creative Direction | Programming | Project Management | Festival Direction | Arts Commissioning |Budget Control | Operations | Design, Marketing & PR Direction
Best in Show Catwalk, Vintage by the Sea 2024, Photograph by Robin Zahler.
"Vintage by the Sea has become a recognised fixture on the British cultural events calendar with superb programming and a truly diverse audience of all ages and from all backgrounds. Being born in Morecambe, it means a lot to me and my own family to see the seafront transformed as it will be again this September, we knew this is what Morecambe was capable of.”
Wayne Hemingway
Vintage by the Sea 2016, a Film by Daniel Brereton
‘Quite Unfit for Females’ performance by About Time Dance Company, Vintage By The Sea 2022, Photograph by Robin Zahler.
“Vintage by the Sea is a wonderful feature of our cultural life and a shout out to the world how wonderful Morecambe is!”
Festival Visitor
DJ Paulette performing at the After Party, Vintage by the Sea 2024, Photograph by Robin Zahler.
"In my 24 years in Morecambe I have never experienced anything that quite matches this year's Vintage by the Sea Festival, which is estimated to have attracted more than 40,000 to Morecambe for the weekend. We should never lose faith in Morecambe's intrinsic potential. The spectacular success of the event shows conclusively and convincingly that a real breakthrough has been made in bringing something unique and energising to Morecambe which will be talked about for years to come."
Councillor Ron Sands, Lancaster City Council's cabinet member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism
Gallery
To find out more about Vintage by the Sea 2024, contact Lauren or Elena here.