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On The Table Read Magazine, “the best arts and entertainment magazine UK“, discover a parallel world of art, folklore, and immersive installations as b-side 2026 brings a ghost of Portland’s historic fair back to life this September.
For over two centuries, every November 5th transformed the Isle of Portland’s Chiswell into a bustling hub of music, fairground rides, and carnival magic. When this historic tradition concluded in 2001 due to rising costs, economic shifts, and pandemic pressures, the island felt a permanent void.
This September, the renowned b-side Festival is stepping in to fill that absence—not by recreating the past, but by conjuring a parallel version of the island where the fair’s ghost can still be experienced. Running from September 10th to 13th, with opening night on the 9th, the 2026 festival marks the final and most ambitious chapter of a six-year creative journey exploring land, identity, and belonging on the Dorset coast.
Exploring ‘That Other Place’ Through Art
Since 2020, b-side has used the four-mile-long island as a canvas to examine community and identity through its Common Lands project. This year’s theme, That Other Place, focuses on island-ness, queerness, and otherness as powerful creative forces capable of shaping new futures.
The 2026 programme brings fifteen artists to the island across two distinct strands. While eleven artists are commissioned for the September festival, four others are undertaking year-long residencies to deeply explore the local landscape and culture.
Strand One: A Parallel Portland Fair
Instead of attempting a literal revival of the historic Chiswell fair, eleven contemporary artists have designed site-specific works across the Underhill area. These free, public installations blend heritage, folklore, and optical illusion to bring the spirit of the old fair back to life:
- Immersive Soundscapes: Visitors can use smartphones and headphones to experience Echoes of Portland Fair, a binaural audio project by Buried Giants that fills the historic streets with spatial sounds of ferris wheels and ghost trains.
- Interactive Lighting: Gavin Morris presents Light Hearted, a massive 2.4-metre LED heart that only illuminates when people join hands to complete an electrical circuit.
- Shadow Projections: Dawn Parsonage and Peter Hudson use community-made cutouts to cast dancing shadows across Portland’s buildings at dusk, reflecting local memories.
- Optical Illusions: Deborah Bowness returns with Walls Are Talking, a trail of trompe l’oeil paste-ups turning Underhill into a historical walking journey.
- Industrial Folklore: From Helen Grant’s working scale-model crane grabber to guided rambles featuring mythical creatures by Chloe Mantripp, the festival deeply engages with local industry and folklore.
- Community Creation: Projects like Carlos Cortes’s community-built ball run and Alexi Marshall’s linocut tarot workshops invite residents and visitors to actively shape the experience.
- Aesthetic Portals: Installations by Ella Yolande, Jane C Fox, and local resident Paul Le Keux weave together textiles, digital projections, and audio-visual storytelling to bridge the gap between myth and reality.
Strand Two: Year-Long Explorations and Island Residency
Beyond the September festival weekend, four artists are spending an entire year embedded in the community to conduct extended research:
- Felix C. Bill is writing flash fiction connecting medical transition and rewilding.
- Jamal Sterrett is exploring the Jamaican movement philosophy Bruk Up in connection with Portland’s dramatic coastal geography.
- Liz Lake is mapping the island’s intuitive knowledge through printmaking and conversations with local healers and land workers.
- Simon Lee Dicker is examining Portland’s quarrying heritage through a queer lens, highlighting how post-industrial spaces become home to rare wildlife.
Festival Information
True to its mission of making contemporary culture accessible to everyone, all commissioned works for b-side 2026 are entirely free and open to the public. Alongside the main exhibitions, visitors can enjoy the b-side Fringe and the Portland Parade.
As the final installment of a six-year exploration, this September’s festival promises to be an extraordinary celebration of landscape, community, and creative expression on the Dorset coast.
Find b-side Festival now:
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