Spacious & Gracious

Folkestone Sea Sports Centre Launch Event

man sam — Wed, 29 May 2013 18:27:05 +0000

The Folkestone Sea Sports Centre had it’s launch event this past Sunday 24th of May. From 12-3pm free sailing testers were on offer for anyone who fancied taking to the seas and the trusty kayaks could be rented out for 30 minute sessions. Come 3pm the BBQ (food by The Shed), ice creams and beverages were rolled out with music from local musician Rudy Warman, which sat very nicely with the cleared up blue skies and sunshine.

Looks like it was a good launch event, with plenty of people taking interest of the facilities on offer. We are already looking forward to what happens with the Sea Sports Centre in the future, and how it can expand in it’s seafront home.

We have some photos from the launch below, alas none of the boats out on the water as an impromptu herring gull rescue had us tied up for a while.

About Spacious and Gracious

man sam — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:26:47 +0000

“Happy Days by the Sea”

Spacious & Gracious is a site about living and being in Folkestone, inspired, in part, by a time when Folkestone could promote itself confidently and unapologetically to the world as an enchanting holiday destination, and in part by our optimistic belief in its cultural and creative future.

The team at S & G, have an art and design background, so a certain art and design bias is likely, but we aim to cover a broad area of interests, and to focus on the positive, to share news, views, ideas and playfulness.

We expect to sometimes be irreverent, and hopefully to be amusing and entertaining.

Get in-touch:

email: hi@spaciousandgracious.co.uk
twitter: @sospacious

Sunday at The Ship

man sam — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:04:36 +0000

A Sunday at The Ship (The Stade, Folkestone Harbour) is always a fine experience. Apart from the fine beverages on offer, along with the friendly bar staff, you are normally treated with a slice of public house based musical entertainment.

This Sunday the Sicknote Blues Band were lined up to begin at 3pm, so we made sure to get there in plenty of time. Having seen Sicknote a few times previously, we knew that they always command quite a crowd, and when we arrived just before 3pm, the place was heaving. I imagine the upcoming Bank Holiday Monday also helped with people feeling free to take a seat and have a drink or three.

As always, The Ship and The Sicknote Blues Band delivered an excellent Sunday afternoon experience.

Photos and video of Sicknote in action below:

Leas Lift Beer Festival (Mar 2013)

man sam — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:49:55 +0000

Once again the Leas Lift Beer Festival rolled around, and this time there was a 5th birthday to celebrate. As well as the usual selection of ales and ciders, there was a brewing competition with the winner gaining the title of ‘Leas Lift Beer Festival Champion Home Brew’.

Both the Friday and Saturday were pretty busy, with everyone sheltering inside due to the cold weather, which didn’t break it’s grasp over the entire three days. To celebrate the 5th birthday I created a special edition t-shirt, which were worn by the crew and were also on sale. You can see Ian wearing it in the photo slideshow below.

As always, the S&G team are looking forward to the next edition of the beer fest. Hopefully we will have some warm weather and sunshine to accompany the fine beverages.

Update: Gary Holness was named the beer winner of the homebrew competition.

Photos and videos below:

Leas Lift Beer Festival (July 2012)

man sam — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:23:40 +0000

My favourite festival returned a bit earlier than the usual September date which afforded people some time to soak in the late Summer sun.

As always it was a busy affair, opening at 4pm on Friday the 27th, which is when the hardcore CAMRA members turn up to sample as much as they can. Friday evening drinkers also had the pleasure of watching the Olympics 2012 opening ceremony on the screen inside the Lift Hall.

We were lucky to have some fine weather on the Saturday afternoon, which can happily extend the sampling time deep into the evening. I hear the barrels ran dry on the Sunday, good news all around.

Already looking forward to the next.

Olympic torch hits the Old High Street

man sam — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:18:22 +0000

The Olympic Torch made it’s way through Folkestone and down The Old High Street today. We setup a camera and recorded a time-lapse of the build up and activity down the street before the torch made it’s way through.

See if you can spot yourself among the speedy humans taking care of their daily business.

Video below (click on HD on the video toolbar for the HD version) :

Folkestone Charivari 2012

man sam — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:25:39 +0000

The Charivari rolled through town this weekend and we managed to get some video from an alternate angle.

Take a look, see if you can spot yourself.

(Check out the video on Vimeo for HD viewing : Click here)

Folkestone Charivari 2012 from spacious & gracious on Vimeo.

Folkestone Airshow 2012

man sam — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 08:39:43 +0000

The Airshow finally made it’s welcome return to Folkestone after far too many years away. With some of the Spacious team having not seen any of the original set of Air Displays back in the 90′s, it was going to be interesting what the turnout would be.

Running alongside the Royal Jubilee, people were definitely in the mood to have fun and be merry. From our position down on the Seafront at the Spacious beach hut, it was the busiest we had ever seen, amazing stuff.

The display did not dissapoint. The Red Arrows seemingly did an extended run, blasting backwards and forwards with their multi-coloured trails, but the team favourite was the Typhoon. The noise that piece of machinery chucks out is incredible.

Of course there was a lot more in display that just that, so please find a gallery of photos below.

I see plans are already underway for the 2013 Airshow, let’s hope it’s as big and bold as 2012.

Leas Lift Beer Festival (Feb 2012)

man sam — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:13:46 +0000

The 3rd Leas Lift Beer Festival was another excellent three day beverage consuming event, with many a visitors and the barrels running dry on Sunday afternoon.

Please find two time-lapse videos and photos below. The first recorded on Friday the 24th between 3pm – 11pm and the second recorded on Saturday the 25th between Midday – 11pm.

Make sure to change the quality to 720p to get the full good stuff, or click through to watch them both on Youtube :

Folkestone Old High Street Fire (video)

man sam — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:58:55 +0000

We managed to take some footage of the fire which looks to have started at the Christian Centre of Peace (no.40) (dodgy fuse box apparently) and then spread to the building next door (no.38) (Next to the old and now refurbished Grapevine off licence). The entire roof space went up in flames above no.38, with tiles exploding and popping off at all angles.

The Fire Brigade were on the scene and finally got it under control and extinguished, and they are currently in the adjacent buildings making sure they are safe. Luckily nobody was hurt.

See our flickr set for further images.

Video of the fire below (pardon the cursing) :