The up-and-coming English seaside town with beachfront hotels, viral Kate Bush event and new ‘open-air art' trails
Absolutely nothing — apart from one day of the year when nearly 1,000 red dress-clad Kate fans descend on the town to celebrate the singer.
5
5
5
Called The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, the unusual event has been running in the Kent town since 2023 and kicks off at midday today on the harbour front.
It's certainly a sight to behold — men and women throwing their arms in the air, dancing to the famous Wuthering Heights song.
But even non- Kate Bush fans will find themselves being swayed into the joy of Folkestone, with or without the bold outfits.
Launching today is the Folkestone Triennial, a huge open-air art exhibition that takes place every three years.
It features 70 pieces of artwork, including works by Tracy Emin, Banksy and Antony Gormley.
Chased by oysters
One of my favourite spots is the beautiful Lighthouse Bar inside a former lighthouse.
Look up and you will see 'Weather is a Third to Place and Time,' painted on the side, a leftover piece from the 2014 Triennial.
Look even further and you might glimpse France.
It's not a place for sitting indoors — there are barely more than a couple of tables.
Instead grab one of the benches lining the harbour.
Martin Lewis warns about strict passport rule that could see you board your flight - only to get sent home on arrival
There is no better feeling than having the sea breeze blow past, and watching errant paddleboarders while sipping a glass of champagne chased by oysters.
I'm surrounded by city dwellers (dubbed DFLers — Down From Londoners) who are all exclaiming how surprised they are by the town.
Lighthouse Bar owner Simon explained to me: 'We were told we were mad to open in Folkestone ten years ago — now look at us.'
Folkestone is certainly becoming one of those places being mentioned as the 'next big thing'.
Often aligned with other Kent seaside destinations Whitstable and Margate, the train from the capital in less than an hour makes it an easy day-trip destination.
Most tourists will flock straight to the Harbour Arm, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.
Lined with shipping containers serving food and drink, every summer there are new additions to the complex.
My favourite new stall this year is The Mompling House, serving Nepalese snacks with juicy steamed momo dumplings and aloo chops, a spiced potato croquette.
Folkestone isn't short of fantastic restaurants either.
There's the award-winning Rocksalt, serving up fresh seafood while overlooking the harbour.
Or new this year is Pomus, a restaurant that opened earlier this month after success in Margate.
But my favourite spot is Marley's, an unassuming place from the outside that offers a small, farm-to-table menu inside (be sure to try the zesty pan-fried sea bass).
5
5
It's one you'll need to make reservations for, as it is always full of locals, but it's one that's worth the wait.
You can barely turn a corner without spotting a bar here.
I inadvertently ended up doing my own drinks crawl, after being tempted inside many of them.
Two must-visits are Burrito Buoy for their frozen margaritas, or The Beer Shop Folkestone, which serves up local craft beers.
When the booze and food becomes too much, the best place for some respite is The London & Paris Hotel.
First opened in 1853 to cater for travellers heading across the Channel, it fell into disrepair before a multi-million-pound renovation in 2023 saw it reopen as an 11-room hotel.
Each of the rooms has a sea view, all with modern coastal chic decor — think blue striped walls and floral patterned pillows.
It felt like my head barely touched the pillow of my extremely plush king-size bed before I was woken up to the sound of seagulls.
A tap on the door heralds the arrival of breakfast, a cute hamper with fresh croissants, juice and fruit
And being so close to town, my early awakening also meant I was able to make the most of the peace and quiet before the crowds came in for the day.
I filled my bag with souvenirs from the Creative Quarter, the famous multi-coloured, steep street peppered with locally run shops.
But after all that eating and drinking, you won't see me Running Up That Hill.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
11 minutes ago
- Times
My audience with Frankel — king of racehorses
For racing fans, the name Frankel is the equivalent of the mythical Pegasus. But the unbeaten superstar of the sport, who was retired from the track in 2012 and is now 17, doesn't reside on Olympus. Instead he can be visited in his stable in Newmarket courtesy of Newmarket Tours. The bad news is that Frankel is only available to the public eight times a year — for a group limited to 24 — and tickets are snapped up faster than an Oasis reunion. For aficionados, this really is the hottest ticket in town. The legend of Frankel is for ever tied with that of his trainer, the late great Sir Henry Cecil. Champion trainer ten times between 1976 and 1993, the charismatic Cecil's career had declined with the combination of a fallout with Sheikh Mohammed, two divorces (he married for a third time in 2008) and then a gradual physical decline caused by stomach cancer. From a peak of having about 200 horses in his care and for decades churning out over 100 winners a year, Cecil was down to about 50 and in 2005 he hit rock bottom with just 12 winners. The following year he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and, but for the staunch support of his leading owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah, he would surely have retired. Cecil had remained a darling of the racing public throughout, though, and it was Abdullah who provided Cecil with his greatest legacy when sending Frankel to his stables as an unraced two-year-old colt back in 2010. Frankel went on to win all 14 races he took part in, from 2010 to 2012, ten of them at the highest level, as he went from strength to strength while his once-dashing trainer looked ever more frail. Many believe that Frankel was all that kept Cecil going in his final years and the trainer finally succumbed to the illness in 2013, his life's work achieved. Those lucky enough to buy the golden Frankel tickets can still be a part of that great legacy. A half-day tour costs just £110, while a full-day version is £210. There are four of each a year. The full-day events start at 8am and are hosted by Cecil's widow, Lady Cecil, who both acts as your tour guide — adding her personal Frankel memories — and hosts a two-course lunch at the Bedford Lodge Hotel on the outskirts of town. The morning takes in a behind-the-scenes visit to Newmarket's Rowley Mile Course (the town also has the July Course), a visit to the gallops and a tour of a trainer's yard before lunch. It is a 2pm start for the half-day tour, meeting at the National Horseracing Museum in the middle of Newmarket. The tour bus is ageing but the journey times are short and the guides, with their years of experience in the sport, are brilliant. The former jockey Larry Bowden steered my bus and delivered a flawless commentary with a hint of a Suffolk accent. Every stud and training yard is accurately reeled off as you drive past, with historical facts about Newmarket and plenty of other little-known gems sprinkled in, all delivered with a dash of humour. • Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts First stop was the top of Warren Hill gallop, close to where Frankel was trained at Cecil's Warren Place base, and offers views across the town. It is a scene that has scarcely changed since Newmarket racecourse was founded by King Charles II back in 1636. Then comes the main event as you arrive at Banstead Manor Stud, which has been Frankel's home since his retirement from racing at the end of 2012. Not every top racehorse enjoys success at stud, with several Derby winners in recent years failing to produce progeny with the requisite ability and ending their careers in far-flung outposts. Frankel has proved exceptional, siring a seemingly endless list of top-class horses. His racing career earned £3 million but breeding is where the real money is. He is visited by about 150 mares during the breeding season, with their owners paying £350,000 a time for the privilege, earning Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms about £52.5 million a year. Given those numbers, it is no surprise that the surroundings are opulent, with well-appointed brick stables set among manicured lawns surrounded by pristine hedges that hide the rolling paddocks behind. If there is so much as a blade of grass out of place, it is not apparent. Banstead Manor houses seven stallions — one of them being Chaldean, a son of Frankel who followed his father by winning the 2,000 Guineas (one of five classics that are run each year in Britain). • The Queen, horse racing and me, by one of Britain's best trainers These are not pets, though, that you can pat on the nose in their stables. They are working horses. Thoroughbreds are by nature flighty and stallions often have plenty of attitude. Each stallion has their own personal groom, with whom they need to gel, and Frankel has been looked after by Rob Bowley since he arrived there in November 2012. The stallions are displayed, one at a time, by their grooms as we are given a running commentary by Henry Bletsoe as to both their racing career and their quirks. Frankel might be the main draw, but we are told that he is not the boss at the stud, with Oasis Dream, who is now 25, still demanding to be first in line. He really does have attitude, despite his advancing years, but looks magnificent with his coat gleaming in the sunshine. Then the main event saunters into view. Frankel, with his four white socks and distinctive crown-shaped white mark on his forehead, is rather more relaxed. He stands obediently as the group looks on in awe at this magnificent specimen, who is prepared to have pictures taken as long as a timely supply of carrots is provided by Bowley, who chats to him throughout. After a few minutes, though, his head starts nodding with ever greater frequency as boredom sets in — why have I been brought out of my stable when there is no mare to visit? He saunters back to his stable and disappears from view. • Can Gen Z save racing? Traditionalists have their doubts The tour ends with a visit to the breeding barn, with our guide trying to find appropriate words to describe how things work with two children in attendance, much to the amusement of the rest of the group. Goodie bags are handed out, in classy Frankel-design bags, which include much sought-after Frankel caps, leaving no doubt as to who is the star of the show. The trip is rounded off with tea and scones back at the museum at 4pm, which allows the chance for any lingering questions to be answered. Newmarket Tours was set up in 2015 and is a not-for-profit organisation that supports tourism in the 'Home of Horseracing'. It is doing invaluable work for the town, operating six days a week and entertaining 10,000 visitors last year. Those unable to buy the Frankel tickets have many other options to choose from, starting from as little as £16.50 (£5 for under-16s) for a 90-minute trip to the National Stud, whose four stallions include the triple Ascot Gold Cup winner Stradivarius. Other studs, trainers' yards and behind-the-scenes access on race days at Newmarket are all available depending on your budget. There are about 3,000 horses in training in Newmarket, but Frankel, who retired in 2012, remains the town's biggest asset. A recent TV advert has a voice-over of a horse telling viewers that 'the Goat is a horse'. It goes on to remind 'mere humans' that a horse can 'sprint 100 metres in five seconds — with one of you on my back'. After centuries of breeding thoroughbred racehorses to become ever faster, Frankel is the best yet. The chance to see him in the flesh once again is too good to miss.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story review – the troubling tale of sex with 1,057 men in 12 hours
For those of you pure of heart and internet search history, Bonnie Blue (real name: Tia Billinger) is famous for being one of the most popular and highest-earning content creators to have appeared on more-or-less porn site OnlyFans. To fulfil her ambition of earning £5m a month from subscribers she needed a USP. She found it in pursuing 'barely legal' sex – traditionally one of the most searched-for terms in porn – with the twist that instead of men searching for videos of other men having sex with teenage (or teenage-looking, depending on how many internet layers you're prepared to sift through for your purposes) girls, Billinger offered herself to young men. She had sex with them for free on condition that they gave permission for her to upload the footage to her OnlyFans account, where her subscribers pay to access her content. 'She is a marketing genius,' says one of the team she has gathered round her to help administrate her growing empire. She has, in essence, introduced an entirely new way of doing porn-business. If she were working in any other field – if she had stayed in her previous job as a finance recruiter for the NHS, perhaps – and innovated to the same extent, she would probably be hailed as an extraordinary entrepreneur. She also specialises in gang bangs, putting calls out on her social media channels for volunteers ('I'm in London, on my back, and I'd like your load'), with no shortage of willing participants. 1000 Men and Me: the Bonnie Blue Story is a documentary by Victoria Silver, who became aware of Billinger's existence through what the algorithm was serving up to Silver's 15-year-old daughter on her social media feeds. It follows Bonnie/Tia as she prepares for ('1,600 condoms, 50 balaclavas, numbing lube') and executes her most infamous endeavour – having sex with 1,000 (1,057, it turns out – 'barely legal or barely breathing … come and rearrange my insides') men in 12 hours. It proved too extreme for OnlyFans – or at least for Visa, who processes its online payments – and she has since had to move elsewhere to continue her campaign for lucrative online-world domination. Naturally, the media – online, legacy and everything in between – has had a field day with all this. They've labelled her everything from predator to victim (she denies both, saying she has no 'daddy issues', no trauma in her past and none induced by her work since). She has been accused of being a traitor ('you're giving into the patriarchy'), and has received multitudinous insults ('disgusting, deplorable slapper' is one we hear from an online commenter). Although Silver's six months in Billinger's company doesn't provide much in the way of decisive evidence or insight, it does show the star to be as steely in her approach to her career as she is Stakhanovite in her labours. When she needs to court attention, the easiest way is often to insult the wives and girlfriends of the men who watch her and come to her events. 'I just loved … knowing I was doing something their wives should have done.' She recommends bringing their partners' underwear along. 'I'll make them smell MUCH nicer'. And just remember, she confides to camera, 'that if a girl says she's on her period, there's nothing wrong with her throat.' But, Silver remains essentially unconfrontational in her approach, and no match for one as robust and unfazed by other people's opinions as Billinger. The latter claims that her career is what feminism has fought for 'for years and years'. So, if young girls are seeing her content and fearing that this is what they should be offering boys? Then it's up to their parents to teach them that it's not for everyone. The idea of a collective or social responsibility, any considerations beyond the purely individual and/or financial gain no traction. Silver rarely pushes back, even when Billinger recruits visibly nervous, deliberately young-looking female content creators for a video in a 'sex education lesson' where performers roleplay students – she asks nothing about possible harms to them or in encouraging male fantasies around girls too young to consent. The basilisk Blue stare seems to hold her in its thrall. There are only perhaps two moments that, for me, come close to revealing anything about Billinger, and even these are only a measure of – maybe – how deep the traits she has already willingly shown us run. The first is her comment: 'Everyone says my brain works different. I'm just not emotional … If I don't want to get upset, I won't get upset.' It reminds me of the statistics that show a high proportion of CEOs and the like – and what is Billinger if not her own CEO – are technically sociopaths. And the second is that when she computes the risk of being insulted in the street she says: 'At least they're getting off the sofa.' This 26-year-old woman who spurned university as unnecessary, was driving a Mercedes C-class by the age of 19, and bought a house shortly thereafter. Hard graft seems to be a high calling, laziness the only sin. Do I admire her work ethic and facility for business? Yes. Do I wish we lived in a world where the best option for realising those talents as a young woman was not through making online porn? Yes. Do I see where we go from here? Yes, I do. And Billinger will be fine. Beyond that individual? Not so much. Not so much. 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story is available on Channel 4.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sharon Osbourne's hidden tributes to late husband Ozzy at his emotional funeral procession
Sharon Osbourne paid a touching tribute to her late husband Ozzy as she led his emotional funeral procession on Wednesday. The Black Sabbath rocker died aged 76 on July 22 and his funeral cortege travelled through his hometown of Birmingham on Wednesday. His grief-stricken wife Sharon and children Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis led the parade and stopped at Black Sabbath Bridge to an outpouring of love from the crowd. Sharon, 72, paid a subtle tribute to her late husband during the ceremony as she wore Ozzy's ring around her neck. She was seen wearing the recognisable gold ring featuring a row of diamonds around her neck on a chain. The distinctive piece of jewellery is believed to be Ozzy's wedding band, and he has been seen wearing it on his ring finger in recent years. According to reports, Ozzy has been wearing the ring since their 2017 vow renewal - which took place 35 years after they originally tied the knot. During the funeral, Sharon also held her hands up and gave a double peace sign - a gesture which has become synonymous with the metal star. Ozzy previously explained the significance behind the gesture, telling Rolling Stone in 2002: 'We were the last hippie band. We were into peace.' Sharon wasn't the only member of the Osbourne clan to subtly pay tribute to Ozzy as his kids also all wore heartfelt items which directly referenced their beloved father. Ozzy's son Louis - from his first marriage to Thelma Riley - wore a purple tie featuring a skull and crossbones in a nod to his father's own rock n' roll style. Kelly, 40, also remembered her father by wearing his iconic sunglasses, with the Prince of Darkness becoming synonymous with round shades over the years. In another poignant clothing choice, Jack, 39, also wore a small silver cross pin on the end of his tie - a reference to Ozzy's signature pendant. Lastly, Aimee, 41, also pinned a bat brooch to her blazer as she joined her family in paying reference to Ozzy's iconic career. One of Ozzy's most famous moments was when he bit the head off a bat live on stage, with the metal star even performing on a bat throne at his farewell show at Villa Park just weeks before his death. Huge crowds descended on Birmingham on Wednesday to pay tribute to the beloved Prince of Darkness at his funeral procession. The funeral cortege was led by a live brass band, Bostin' Brass, who performed versions of Black Sabbath songs such as Iron Man, as thousands of tearful devotees lined the streets and sang along in Ozzy's memory. The hearse carrying the singer's coffin - adorned with purple flowers spelling out 'Ozzy' - passed the star's childhood home in Lodge Road, Aston, shortly after midday. Flowers had been placed outside the terraced property, close to Villa Park, while the owners of the house put up a picture of Osbourne in the front bay window. Sharon led the procession with her children Jack, Aimee and Kelly and Ozzy's son Louis from his first marriage as they comforted each other amid their devastating grief. Thousands of people were pictured taking their places not only on Black Sabbath Bridge but along the city centre route along which his cortege travelled towards the Black Sabbath Bridge bench. Fans clapped and cheered chanting 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy' as the rock legend's hearse passed through the streets of Birmingham as Sharon watched on and brushed away tears. Describing Ozzy as a 'working class hero' who loved his city, the Lord Mayor of Birmingham said: 'I got to know him in the last few weeks when we gave him the freedom of the city and he was just so humble, so down to earth. He was a working class hero. 'I couldn't tell he was a rock star, he was just an ordinary guy, so caring. He had working class roots and his loved his fans, he loved his city, he always promoted Birmingham wherever he went, he was proud to have been born in Aston. 'His slogan was "Birmingham Forever" and that makes me such a proud citizen. It was a last hurrah for him today.' Ozzy and his Black Sabbath bandmates - Terence 'Geezer' Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward - were recently given the freedom of the city of Birmingham, which recognises people's exceptional service to the city. Ozzy is survived by his wife Sharon and his five children Jessica, Louis, Aimee, Kelly and Jack. In a statement shared last Tuesday, Ozzy's family said he died 'surrounded by love', adding: 'It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning.' Ozzy took to the stage for his farewell concert at Villa Park stadium in his native Birmingham less than three weeks before his death - reuniting with his original Black Sabbath bandmates for the first time since 2005. More than 42,000 fans packed into the venue for the Back To The Beginning show, during which he told the crowd in his final speech: 'You've no idea how I feel - thank you from the bottom of my heart.' Fans clapped and cheered chanting 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy' as the rock legend's hearse passed through the streets of Birmingham as Sharon watched on and brushed away tears A message on screen then read: 'Thank you for everything, you guys are f***ing amazing. Birmingham Forever,' before the sky lit up with fireworks. He had told of it being his last performance due to his health, having opened up about his battle with Parkinson's in 2020. The musician had undergone seven surgeries in the past five years, including a fourth spinal operation in 2023, and had been battling Parkinson's disease since 2003. Before his final show, Ozzy said he hoped to continue recording music after retiring from live performing, but he heartbreakingly died before he was able to do so. Ozzy's last solo album, 2022's Patient Number 9, featured a long list of guest artists, including hid Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Zakk Wylde, and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, among others.
