About Us
The Jurassic Coast Earth Festival 2012 is a celebration of England’s only natural World Heritage Site – 95 miles of breathtaking coastline between Exmouth and Swanage (led by the Lyme Regis Development Trust). Between May and September you can take part in a range of amazing events that fuse science with art to give us a new way of seeing where we fit into the history of time. From May to September, coastal and gateway towns in Dorset and East Devon are hosting an exciting programme of events that fuse art and performance with science, giving us a new way of seeing where we fit into the history of time.
With the eyes of the world on the London 2012 Games, the Jurassic Coast - 95 miles of breathtaking coastline between Exmouth and Swanage - provides a stunning backdrop to Weymouth and Portland’s sailing and windsurfing events. The Jurassic Coast Earth Festival is part of Maritime Mix: London 2012 Cultural Olympiad by the Sea.
Journey with us through 185 million years of the earth’s history, engage your imaginations and help us live more sustainably today!
Our Specially Commissioned Arts Projects include:
- Onboard – a low-carbon simulated flight on Jurassic Airlines; fly back 185 million years and ‘visit’ other natural world heritage sites
- Pliosaur - an enormous cinematic, walk-in Jurassic lizard - big enough to eat a T-Rex. Find him (he's called Horace, by the way) at various locations along the coast from 4th May to 25th August.
- Celebration of Time – with surrealist singer songwriter Robin Hitchcock and poet John Hegley
- 26 and 7 Bones – stories and performance, engaging hands and feet, people and place, along the Jurassic seaboard.
Our Co-produced Events include:
- Lyme Regis Fossil Festival, to include our specially commissioned arts projects as well as
- MEMO (Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory) stone carving extinct species
- Collaborative Curiosity – a digital live science project
- Rock Around the Coast, along the World Heritage Site
- Durlston Earth Festival
- Natural Seaton Festival
- Natural History Museum and Jurassic Coast Exhibition at the Weymouth Bayside Festival
- Exmouth Earth Festival, including Nowhere Island
- Have a Go – stone masonry at Lulworth Heritage Centre
- Jurassic Coast Activity Days, West Bay
Associated Events and Partners
Details of our many associated events and partners can be found on our events page.
Young People
We're really keen to involve young people in the Earth Festival, as participants as well as audiences. Find out about The Story of the Jurassic Coast and The Big Jurassic Classroom.
I feel privileged to live on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset and am delighted to be the patron of the Jurassic Coast Earth Festival, which is appropriately taking place in 2012. I know that this will help to draw attention to the rich biological history of our region. So much of the history of biology is hidden in the deposits along the coast and the festival will help to educate many people and show the importance of our coast to the scientific understanding of past and present earth history.
Sir Ghillean Prance, FRS, VMH , Earth Festival Patron,
Trustee and Scientific Advisor to Eden Project, former Director of Kew Gardens
The Jurassic Coast Earth Festival 2012 is led by the Lyme Regis Development Trust in partnership with Creative Coast, the Jurassic Coast Partnership, The Natural History Museum and the Regional Educational Legacy in Arts and Youth Sport (RELAYS) and benefits from UNESCO patronage.
LYME REGIS DEVELOPMENT TRUST
The Earth Festival is the brainchild of the Lyme Regis Development Trust, part of its long-term strategy to improve the year-round economy of Lyme Regis. LRDT is a community-based organisation that exists to stimulate the economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being of Lyme Regis and the surrounding areas.
As such, one of LRDT’s key objectives is to strengthen and develop the tourist sector in a way which brings benefits to the town and local businesses and creates well paid year round employment opportunities;significant educational tourism destination, focusing on geology, fossils, history of earth sciences, as well as broader heritage and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The annual Fossil Festival is a key element in this plan and over the years, LRDT has built a relationship with the Natural History Museum, which supports many of the LRDT’s projects. The Olympic Sailing at Weymouth has enabled us to raise the profile still further in 2012 with an Earth Festival stretching along the coast.
The potential of links to other World Heritage sites has lead to close co-operation with UNESCO leading to national/international interest and thus a much higher profile for this small but vibrant south coast town.
