Fighting off stiff competition from Arts by the Sea Festival and others, the Shake & Sit Vintage Music Festival was announced as the DMB Tourism Awards Event of the Year at a gala dinner hosted at Bournemouth Pavilion on 9 November 2023.

Launched in 2022, the DMB Tourism Awards celebrates businesses that show excellence in making Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole a great place to visit, live and work. The awards had 19 categories with category entries spanning across hospitality, education, retail, event, and transportation focussing on businesses and organisations who have been working to improve local offerings whilst attracting visitors to the BCP area.

Shake & Stir had stiff competition from Arts by the Sea Festival, Bourne Free, Christchurch Music Festival, Highcliffe Food & Arts Festival, and World of Love festival who were all in the running for the Event of the Year Award, sponsored by MoreBus.

Thrilling vintage lovers, families, holidaymakers and locals for almost a decade, Shake & Stir attracted over 30,000 visitors to Southbourne last June.

The popular music festival features vintage fashion, vintage car displays, artisan traders and live music playing the sounds of the 1920s-1970s.

Mandy Polkey, managing director of Stir Events CIC, leading the team behind Shake & Stir, commented: “We’re overjoyed to accept this award for the best Event of the Year in BCP, and feel so honoured to have won this award for two years in a row now. We’ve worked really hard to create a unique and regular event that brings visitors into Southbourne every year and it’s just wonderful to be recognised for that. There’s a lot of love for Shake & Stir. It really is the people’s festival and we can’t wait to host the event again in summer 2024 and bring even more vintage-fun to BCP.”

Shake & Stir is set to return to Southbourne in June 2024 to delight locals and visitors alike with family friendly fun, live music and much more.