Saturday 12th August 2023 - Dog Show @ Sandham Gardens
For full details on the Sandown Bay Regatta Dog Show, click here
Sunday 13th August 2023 - Sandown Bay Regatta on Sandown Esplanade
An annual summer celebration of Sandown Bay with FREE family entertainment from our Stage, beach fun at the Beach Sports Arena and a street market lining Sandown Esplanade.
Plus, Regatta Hats are Back!
We're thrilled to announce we've been awarded an Arts Council England grant to revive the much-loved tradition of wearing a hat at the town's Regatta in August.
Like generations of Sandown people, long-time resident and councillor Heather Humby remembers when everyone picked up their Regatta hat from one of the stalls lining Pier Street as they headed down to the Esplanade. A 1940s photo shows a teenage Heather wearing hers with pride.
‘It was part of the great fun of Regatta day with all sorts of hats on show…silly tiny ones, big ones with tassels, flowery ones’ she says. ‘It’s terrific that Sandown Carnival has found a way to revive one of our town’s great traditions and I can’t wait to wear my hat again this year’.
Our great Regatta hat revival will also celebrate the town’s connection with legendary hatmaker Gertrude Shilling, famous for her outlandish hat designs at Ascot races. Half a century ago, Mrs Shilling’s creations were paraded on the Esplanade and she was invited to crown our Carnival Queen in 1975.
The project's artistic lead Teresa Grimaldi will be producing several hats in the outrageous Shilling style, to be shown off in High Street shop windows and at our Grand Hat Parade on Regatta day itself, Sunday 13th August.
The grant, from the Arts Council England Heritage Lottery Fund, means we'll be putting on a series of free hat-making workshops in the run-up to the Regatta. The Shilling-style headwear will be created in collaboration with the public, and local primary school children and care home residents will be involved too. With sustainability and the Island's UNESCO Biosphere status in mind, hundreds of hats will be made using seed paper...so they can planted after use, with the seeds germinating and producing floral displays.
