LAST weekend's Fringe Festival saw Stroud become a seaside town for the first time.

On the afternoon of Friday 26th August 2016, 16 tonnes of beach sand were delivered to The Subscription Rooms forecourt ready to transform the area into a beach resort complete with cocktail bar, a stage with live music and DJs and a tea tent for the weekend. 

The beach created a back drop to a line-up of events that took place at the venue over the weekend. The weekend started with a bang on Friday night with Fringe Mumbo. The night, now a steadfast Stroud Fringe tradition, is run by the DJ collective Mumbo Jumbo, who have been running their popular classic deep house set for over 25 years. 

Saturday kicked off at noon with “The Stroud Symphony of Bells and Brass”, a town-wide symphony composed by Catalan musician Llorenc Barber who has composed symphonies of Bells for Rome, Copenhagen and Madrid, as well as UK towns and cities including York, Greenwich and Ipswich.

As well as all the church bells the Symphony will include brass bands on roofs and strategic points around Stroud plus the composer playing his own bells on the roof of the Stroud Subscription Rooms. Featuring the 10 bells of St Lawrence's, Holy Trinity, All Saints Uplands, All Saints Selsley, Mary Magdalene, Immaculate Conception RC Church and assembled brass players from across Gloucestershire.

After the huge success of his stage last year, local musical guru Dave Ayre again hosted a vibrant line-up of young musicians on The Subscription Room forecourts from 2pm on Saturday afternoon.

After all of the official stages closed down for the night The Subscription Rooms lived up to it’s reputation of the entertainment at the heart of Stroud by hosting the legendary DJ Greg Wilson visited Stroud as part of his global festival tour. Greg’s Summer schedule includes dates in New York, the Ministry of Stroud Birthday party, Festival Number6 and Bestival Festival.

Greg began DJing in 1975 at the age of 15, was a resident DJ at the Hacienda during the infamous early days, was the first DJ to live mix on British television during an episode of The Tube in 1983 and is credited with teaching Norman Jay (aka Fat Boy Slim) to mix. The magnificent ballroom, hosted the town’s infamous Black Box system and was transformed with a large silk parachute canopy, visual backdrop from artists Mel Rodicq to set the scene for the town to dance through until sunrise.

Finally, Sunday at Stroud on Sea sees a day of cocktails, DJ sets and fun games for all the family (blindfolded long jump and limbo anyone?) to round off a weekend of incredible music, arts and entertainment Stroud-style. And the weather? Well it wouldn’t be a trip to the seaside without a bit of grey skies and drizzle would it! Luckily DJs Sam Clarke-Stone, Jagadish Patel, Jamie Rainbow and Joe Dymond had their record boxes on hand to keep the crowd dancing and their spirits high until the skies cleared.

Thanks to Intrigue of Stroud, Wild Boar, Chalford Building Supplies, Hercules Propellors, Severn Cider, The Subscription Rooms, Jewson and Debi Thomas of the Toy Shop for making this wonderful event happen; another example of how a town can come together to create a bit of magic. We look forward to seeing the beach return next year, and rumours of an ice skating rink at Christmas are yet to be denied.