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Mablethorpe kept its international profile in the fore with the third annual Bathing Beauties Festival between 18th and 20th September. With events organised on the promenades and beaches and in beach huts between Mablethorpe and Sutton-on-Sea, this is the largest festival of its kind in Europe.

We are grateful to our friends in the Visions Project for agreeing to provide photos in the absence of our regular My Mablethorpe photographer. Are these the bathing Beauties that everyone was looking for? (Click an image to enlarge)

Owners' beach huts were colourfully decorated for the Festival. This year saw one new hut appear on the promenade near the Lifeboat station: "A Hut for Gazing & Canoodling" by We Made That.

Many huts were home to art and craft stalls and exhibitions for the weekend and with music, street theatre, competitions, a parade and so much more, the thousands of visitors couldn't have failed to find something to savour and enjoy! See many more images in the Bathing Beauties Festival Gallery

Sit back and watch a video of the Festival shown on TeleMatin (French TV programme). It's not necessary to speak French - the images say a lot!

Footbag

One attraction which didn't make it into the offiicial programme deserves a mention. If you were strolling along the beach in the warm sunshine you may have noticed 3 young men doing some amazing tricks with very tiny 'balls'. What you were watching was 'footbag', demonstrated by local 'freestyler', Ian Cozens and friends Matthew Bailey and Nick Sullivan.

Footbag or freestyle footbag is a sport based around keeping a small ball or footbag off the ground for as long as possible, by means of contact from any part of the body except the hands while interacting with the bag in numerous ways, whether it be through dexterities (negotiating a part of the body around the bag) spinning or ducking.

Freestyle footbag has developed since 1972 from simply kicking a handmade bean filled sack, to a technical and athletic worldwide phenomenon. As it is today it can be seen as a sport, a skill, a means to keep in trim and even something creative and aesthetic. There are now (2009) over 45,000 players in over 120 countries, although the UK has only a handful of footbag 'freestylers', so you really did see something rare!

Spot the footbag!

Find out more at the UK Footbag Website