Herne Bay 2024 poster by Rob Murray
Royston Robertson writes:
The 11th Herne Bay Cartoon Festival, which will see cartoonists from all over the country visit the Kentish seaside town, is upon us, and the theme is “Rocking the Boat!”
The main live event will be held at the Beach Creative gallery again – on Sunday 4 August – after last year’s proved to be a huge success as a result of being held in the same location as the main exhibition.
The festival kicks off tomorrow (Saturday 27 July) with “Golden Years”, an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the British Cartoon Archive, at the Seaside Museum. It focuses on cartoons published since the Kent-based archive began its work in 1974.
The flagship festival exhibition “Rocking the Boat!” opens at Beach Creative on Friday 2 August. It will feature gags and political cartoons responding to the theme – some literally and some reflecting the chaos of this election year.
Rocking the Boat exhibition cartoons © Chris Burke, Kathryn Lamb, Pete Dredge, Andrew Birch and Royston Robertson
Running alongside the main exhibition, in the Rossetti Room at Beach Creative, will be an exhibition of drawings from the PCO’s “The Great British Colouring Book”, which was sent to children in UK migrant centres, as a response to the former immigration minister Robert Jenrick ordering that cartoon murals in one Kent centre should be painted over as they were too welcoming.
On Saturday 3 August illustrator Sally Kindberg will host a free comic-strip drawing workshop at Beach Creative. Booking is advised.
Then the live event will be held on Sunday 4 August from 12 noon. The cartoonists will be drawing and painting on large canvases while caricaturists draw the public. There are sure to be a few other surprises too. It’s a chance for fans of cartoons to chat to cartoonists and buy books and other merchandise as well as purchase prints and originals in the exhibition.
Scenes from Herne Bay Cartoon Festival 2023, the first to be held entirely at Beach Creative
Cartoonists attending over the weekend are: Jeremy Banx, Andrew Birch, Dave Brown, Des Buckley, Chris Burke, Ben Chilton, Clive Goddard, Alex Hughes, Tom Johnston, Sally Kindberg, Kathryn Lamb, Glenn Marshall, James Mellor, Rob Murray, Ed Naylor, Dean Patterson, Royston Robertson, Martin Rowson, Pete Songi, Guy Venables and Chris Williams.
The live event is not the end of the festival, of course, there’s still plenty of time to see the exhibitions: “Rocking the Boat!” runs until Thursday 15 August and “Golden Years” until Saturday 14 September.
Beach Creative is at Beach House, Beach Street, Herne Bay CT6 5PT. The gallery is open daily 10am-4pm
The Seaside Museum is at 12 William Street, Herne Bay CT6 5EJ and is open Tuesday to Saturday 11am-4pm. Note: the museum will also be open on Sunday 4 August so visitors to the live event can see the exhibition.
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