Paddle Round The Pier

PADDLE ROUND THE PIER

As Brightonians we’re used to gawping at the monolithic spectre of the West Pier, but not everyone can say they’ve paddled round it and raised a pot of dough for worthy causes. Paddle Round The Pier has been an annual fixture since 1996 and has developed a growing international reputation as one of the most offbeat and fun fundraisers around. It’s grown into Europe’s biggest free beach festival, with urban and street sports, live music and kid-friendly antics all adding to the atmosphere.

From serious paddlers with kayaks and bodyboards to floating fools atop barely-seaworthy beds and front doors, there are buoyancy options for all in the voyage around the pier’s circumference, as well as a stand-up paddleboard race, a seriously knackering two-mile pier-to-pier Malibu board race and a full-blown sailing regatta. But you don’t have to get even a big toe wet if you’re a committed landlubber – there’s plenty going on across the weekend with a definite dry-land emphasis. Urban and street sports combine to provide a schedule of events where experts risk alarming limb damage via the perilous disciplines of skateboards, bikes and the ultimate thrill-seeking fix of parkour.

There’s also the best in beach culture, loads of stalls to wander round, great food and booze and a seriously packed programme of live music, all without recourse to putting your hand in your pocket (although you should probably help out the charities the event’s supporting – including RNLI, Surfaid and Whoopsadaisy). SOURCE doesn’t really want to show everyone else up with our prodigious paddling prowess, but we’ll certainly be checking out some of the live music the organisers have booked.

The Jo Harman Project are an interesting proposition at the moment; moving away from their established pop roots into more soul, gospel and blues avenues. SOURCE faves The Half Sisters will be plying their ukulele and flute trade against trademark three-part harmonies, with games and face-paint shenanigans, while Los Albertos are on hand to daub the summer air with broad strokes of ska, they’re always big bouncy bundles of fun in the sun. Mean Poppa Lean bring their crowd-pleasing diet of funk rock to the party, and there’s sing-along Mick’n’Keef action from The Railing Stains, a tribute band so authentic that yer actual Stones booked them to play a fan convention and Ronnie Wood’s son joined their ranks. Elsewhere Transformer, another SOURCE fave and former cover stars, are an essential live act, with stage invasions not unheard of as the crowd is bewitched by their LCD-meets-Talking-Heads set. And you probably shouldn’t miss Lucky Jim, a folk singer songwriter you might remember from the Kingsmill TV ads that used his track ‘You’re Lovely To Me’. It all sounds lovely to us…

WORDS BY NICK COQUET