Swanage in Dorset is home to the fantastic Swanage Carnival, which takes place across two weekends in July and August and is about to return for its 2026 outing
Swanage is also a morris dancing hub(Image: Getty Images)
It wouldn’t be a trip to the British seaside without a lorry-load of child stormtroopers appearing at some point.
Or at least, that seems to be the case in Swanage.
Last week, the seaside town was named the 14th best in the country by readers of Which?, who praised its fantastic scenery and beach. What the 5,320 readers did not mention in the rankings (which placed Bamburgh in Northumberland for a sixth year in a row), is Swanage’s weirder side.
I visited the Dorset town of 10,000 during a stay in the beautiful village of Kimmeridge, a little further down the Jurassic Coast. I was expecting more of the same: a pebbly beach, rugged headlands and a sense of peace and quiet that belies its location and quality.
I got nothing of the sort.
Swanage is home to one of the best and weirdest events you’ll find anywhere on the British coastline. The iconic Swanage Carnival.
The Swanage Regatta and Carnival, as it is formally known, has a history dating back to the mid 1800’s when the first sailing regatta was held in Swanage Bay. The carnival portion was added in the early 1900s and hit a real high point in the 1950s when Noddy and Famous Five author Enid Blyton became its president. She loved getting stuck in, even organising the closing firework display.
Today, the show remains one of the best points of the carnival. On warm evenings, people swim out into the sea to get a unique view of the rockets and roman candles exploding above.
What has changed quite a bit – and where Swanage’s strangeness lies – is in the carnival floats.
When I visited, a lorry was loaded up with a primary school classroom’s worth of girls dressed as Star Wars stormtroopers, sporting blasters and shiny white helmets. A short while later, they were joined by Granny Tourismo, the world’s first (and only) shopping trolley dance display team. Look up to the sky, and you’d be treated to a genuinely breathtaking aerobatic wingwalking display team.
The year’s theme? ‘Swanage Goes Musical’, of course.
Last year, the dress code was ‘Cirque du Swanage’. Cue a floatload of 20 clowns in violently bright rainbow wigs and a traveling circus float, followed a short way after by a child in an electronic jeep, pulling a large giraffe toy.
Belly-dancers danced and majorettes twirled their batons, at the same time as a pair of orange-faced Oompa Loompas raced against the Undertaker and Hulk Hogan for glory in the ever-popular wheelbarrow race.
A woman dressed as a tiger could only watch on from her position on the back of a lorry, locked in a cage.
It’s all the kind of excellent, distinctly weird stuff that the south coast does particularly well. When viewed on a scorching hot summer’s day, sky blue and ice cream melting onto your hand, the effect is almost surreal.
And the good news is, the Swanage Carnival is about to begin again. For eight days from July 25, thousands of visitors will descend on the town to enjoy more than 100 events. This year’s theme is ‘A wacky western in Carnival Canyon’. Expect Stormtroopers in cowboy hats.
If all of that wasn’t enough, come September, the streets of Swanage are taken over by hundreds of members of Britain’s longest-running and most beloved cult, morris dancers.
TOP 30 SEASIDE TOWNS & VILLAGES
- Bamburgh — 84%
- Tynemouth — 82%
- St Andrews — 81%
- Aldeburgh — 80%
- Crail — 80%
- Frinton-on-Sea — 80%
- Portmeirion — 80%
- St Davids — 79%
- Bude — 78%
- Southwold — 78%
- North Berwick — 77%
- Plockton — 77%
- St Ives — 77%
- Swanage — 77%
- Lyme Regis — 76%
- Lytham St Annes — 76%
- Portstewart — 76%
- Conwy — 75%
- Dornoch — 75%
- Filey — 75%
- Lynmouth — 75%
- Sidmouth — 75%
- St Mawes — 75%
- Tenby — 75%
- Tobermory — 75%
- Wells-next-the-Sea — 75%
- Whitley Bay — 75%
- Broadstairs — 74%
- Falmouth — 74%
- Llandudno — 74%
BOTTOM 30 SEASIDE TOWNS & VILLAGES
- Ilfracombe — 57%
- Minehead — 57%
- Bridlington — 56%
- Cleethorpes — 56%
- Fishguard — 56%
- Seaton — 56%
- Torquay — 56%
- Abersoch — 55%
- Colwyn Bay — 55%
- Morecambe — 55%
- Newquay — 55%
- Barry Island — 54%
- Skegness — 54%
- Mablethorpe — 53%
- Margate — 53%
- Paignton — 53%
- Southport — 53%
- Herne Bay — 52%
- Littlehampton — 51%
- New Brighton — 51%
- Weston-super-Mare — 50%
- Burnham-on-Sea — 48%
- Clacton-on-Sea — 48%
- Southend-on-Sea — 47%
- Bangor — 46%
- Blackpool — 46%
- Fleetwood — 46%
- Great Yarmouth — 46%
- Lowestoft — 46%
- Bognor Regis — 41%
Results are based on an online survey conducted in January-February 2026 of 5,320 Which? Connect panel members who spoke about 11,999 experiences of visiting a UK seaside town for leisure purposes in the previous 12 months.