AN arts and music festival is set to be staged in a seaside town in Tendring at the end of this summer. 

Between the Tides will be held on the weekend of the autumn equinox, starting on the evening of Friday, September 20. 

It will be the first such event to take place in the town since the Walton Folk Festival which ran until the early 2000s.  

The idea to revive a festival-style event has come from two women involved in the local arts scene, Ruth Anderson and Eleanor Brown, who hope it will prove a boost for the town at the end of the summer. 

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The festival will use the midday high tides as a timeline for certain events, taking audiences from the town's sandy beaches at low tide in the mornings into the town in the afternoon.  

Eleanor, who in 2022 opened a bookshop and coffee bar which has become a community hub in the town, told the Gazette: "We hope this festival will be a weekend for arts and community groups to come together, creating opportunities for local artists and musicians to provide entertainment and fun for residents and visitors."

In the run-up to the weekend event, there will be two festival socials for artists and musicians at the Bruff Bar in The Parade, the first of which is on Friday, May 31.  

Clacton and Frinton Gazette: Audience - Members of Frinton's Rotary Club were in attendance (Image: Steve Brading)Audience - Members of Frinton's Rotary Club were in attendance (Image: Steve Brading) (Image: Steve Brading)

Frinton Rotary Club has also launched an art competition in support of the festival for schoolchildren, with its title being Wonders of Walton.  

A Rotary spokesman said: "This will leave children plenty of scope to choose between the town’s natural features such as its beaches, backwaters and fossil-rich cliffs at the Naze, or prominent buildings such as the church, Naze Tower, or pier."

Winning entries will be displayed in the Naze Tower art gallery in September and other displays and activities will be held around the tower on the weekend of the festival.  

There will be an art trail incorporating displays at shops in the town including The Nose bookshop in Newgate Street.  

The festival is working with community groups and other groups who would like to be involved are invited to contact Eleanor Brown at The Nose bookshop.