Visit Great Yarmouth.

Recalling that 50s style
Eastern Daily Press
08 June 2005

Great Yarmouth,
forget Spain or The Lake of The Ozarks this Summer, try a good old fashioned English Sea-side holiday.

Events like this really help to put our seaside towns on the map.

Preparations for Yarmouth’s first 1950s’ seaside special festival are well under way – thanks to the generosity of EDP readers.
After tourism chiefs appealed last month for people to donate authentic clothing from the era to organisers the responses came flooding in.
Yesterday, bosses thanked the hundreds of women readers who have provided clothing – but asked for men to follow suit … otherwise male helpers will be left wearing floral dresses!
The costumes will form part of a special weekend at the Time and Tide museum themed around the traditional Yarmouth seaside holiday, enjoyed by millions in the 1950s and 1960s.
It will be the museum’s first big open-air event and will feature coconut shies, model boat building and sailing, Punch and Judy shows, facepainting and a traditional 1950s’ ice-cream vendor.
Museum director Rachel Kirk said the festival would be of interest for everyone who had worked in the Norfolk tourism industry for generations – or just had memories of enjoying a traditional seaside break.
“Yarmouth is about the seaside and nearly everyone who lives here is involved in some way with the tourism industry,” she said.
“Sometimes people are sniffy about Yarmouth, but this is the second most successful resort in the country.
“This is a way of rewarding all those who have been part of the tourist industry for generations, that’s why we’re holding this festival outside of the peak season as it’s more for locals rather than people having their first holiday here.
“It is all about showing Yarmouth has a positive image and has done for generations.”
This will be the first major event for the Time and Tide at Blackfriars Road since it failed to win the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize last month, the biggest museum award in Europe, despite making it to the final four.
Ms Kirk added: “It was a great shame about the Gulbenkian, but we’ve all got over it now. Because of the publicity around the prize we’ve had fantastic visitor numbers over the last few weeks, so we’ve been able to invest in the museum despite not winning the money.
“But this festival will be a way of moving things forward and starting a new chapter in the museum’s history.”
The seaside special festival is over the weekend of July 25-26, 10am to 5pm, each day. Normal admission prices.