Bournemouth Wheels Festival 2015

As exciting as it is to travel to new countries and immerse yourself into totally new cultures there are also great things to do closer to home.

I grew up in Bournemouth on the south coast of England and its becoming a more popular seaside town with every year that passes. Bournemouth had hosted the Air Festival for many years which is traditionally held at the end of summer and in 2014 for the first time ever Bournemouth added the Wheels Festival to the summer programme of events. It was a hugely successful event with around 500,00 visitors and so it returned bigger and better for 2015.

I would recommend the Bournemouth Wheels Festival for everyone, young, old, petrol head or not. There is something for everyone. It is a mostly free event however there are some charges for optional extras. I, being the budget conscious traveller, did not spend a penny yet had an amazing time and was still able to enjoy all the demonstrations I wanted.

Monster Trucks

The monster trucks were a huge success in the first year and so they returned with an arena double the size and more shows. Slingshot returned with three new monster trucks all of which performed in various shows throughout the weekend.

This is a great section for kids and adults alike as who doesn't like seeing humongous trucks crush cars and do huge jumps over the crushed remains on the beach. They even gave out car parts that "survived the crush", for example a radio, keys or headrests. Whilst you can sit or stand surrounding the arena for free there is grandstand seating for a £2 charge. This is placed to give you the best central view with elevated seating to ensure a clear view. A perk but not a requirement to get a good view.

 

Also available are Monster Truck rides. These do come at a price but allows you a ride along the beach in a monster truck. I found that I wasn't interested enough to fork out the fee and enjoyed watching the shows much more, however would definitely be an exciting experience for the kids especially.

Freewheel stunts

Team Extreme have come down to the wheels festival both years and performed fantastic shows on their spine and vert ramps by the pier. They feature Roller-skaters, BMX riders, Scooters and Skateboarders all of whom perform amazing tricks throughout the day. Personally this is my favourite part of the festival. They really do deliver in he performances as they push themselves to perform their best tricks and often overrun their 15minute show time due to their passion and the audiences enthusiasm for their shows.

Team extreme also host tutorials in-between their shows for anyone wanting to learn a bit about how to ride like they do.

FMX

The Freestyle Motocross stunts are hugely popular shows at the Wheels festival with some of the best riders from across the globe doing insane jumps and on the beach. Even with less then ideal conditions they delivered again and again doing crazy tricks with their bikes as they made the leap from their take off ramp to the landing ramp 20m away.

Demonstration Straight

The demonstration straight lines the east cliff above the beach and displays F1 cars, old and new, supercars, touring and rally cars. You can line the entire stretch of the makeshift track and watch as the carts speed past. The attraction of this depends more heavily upon your interest in cars then some of the other events however you don't need to be an expert on cars to appreciate their appearances.

Supercars

This year the BIC displayed supercars for all to see including Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Porsche and Aston Martin's. This is a section that petrol heads may be more interested in however like the rest of the festival it is open to all.

 

Family Fun

In addition to all the amazing shows and demonstrations happening there are fairground rides and stalls selling food, souvenirs and clothing in between Bournemouth and Boscombe pier. There is also plenty going on in Bournemouth gardens with face painting, live music and police cars for the kids to sit in

Itchy feet

Over the last month I have been getting more and more anxious to travel somewhere. I have got the travel bug bad after my America adventure and I'm desperate to go travelling again. I just want to go somewhere new, see a new place and another corner of this wide and expanding world. Unfortunately being in my final year of university means I am very busy at the moment and I don't even have the free time to go into Central, let alone a new country all together.

The last few weeks I have been thinking more and more about a Christmas getaway. I finish my uni work on the 14th December and thought about going away for a few days to somewhere in Europe. I wanted my sister to come to but she is a teacher has a more limited amount of time off then me and is also trying to save at the moment so didn't think she'd be able to do it. I was on the verge of just paying for her ticket so she had to come! Then tonight she called me suggesting we buy tickets for a getaway and surprise our mum with them so that all three of us go away. Unfortunately mum can't get time off work though and after another hour on the phone we decided we should still go. I also told Gemma I would just buy her a ticket anyway.

So now it is decided. Me and my sister are going to Brussels for a few days. We leave on Saturday 20th December and travel via Mega Bus from London to Brussels over night (it will be just like being back in that Trek America Van) we will then spend Sunday and Monday in Brussels and will be going to the famous Christmas market, getting into the festive spirit! We've booked a hostel in the city centre where we will stay on the Sunday night then on Monday night we will get back on the bus and travel back to London overnight once more! It's costing us only £85.50 total for both of us to travel to Brussels and back by bus which is unbelievably cheap and the hostel is also only about £16 each!


I'm so excited now and can't wait for the 20th to get here so I can satisfy my itchy feet and travel somewhere new and have that thrill of being somewhere new all over again! I've just got to finish the T Junction Festival, an applied theatre show and write an essay before I can go. If this isn't motivation to get through the semester I don't know what is!!

A look back on my travels of the east coast...