Adventure Island, late May, 2017

The White Bus run two film festivals in Southend, “Horror-on-Sea” in January and a more regular one in late May, using The Park Inn Palace Hotel as the base. This May also saw settled weather so a good chance to see the sea front doing what it does best from the hotel balcony, above Pier Hill and reached through the bar between films.

You can hear the noise from Adventure Island, people and rides, the music is The Jacksons, “Blame it on the Boogie”; there is some kind of tie in with Radio Essex. At the end you hear two skateboarders come down Pier Hill. No pier train, not sure why, it would normally be running.

Very popular this year was “The Lost Films of The Kursaal” 16mm taken by Jay Morehouse, owner of The Kursaal, taken between 1947 and the ’60’s but, unfortunately for this project, silent.

This was recorded on 28 May, about 5 o’clock p.m. although the photo of Pier Hill is from the day before.