Challenge

Percussion Play was asked to create a musical trail for visitors to enjoy as they wandered along the refurbished pier at Boscombe. The musical instruments would be exposed to the harsh conditions of a seaside location and needed to be available for people to play all year round.

Bournemouth’s exciting Coastal Activity Park opened in 2014, encompassing just over 1km of the beautiful seafront area of Boscombe. The aim of the Park is to rejuvenate the existing seafront by introducing new activities, sport and events to attract visitors.

Solution

Percussion Play provided musical instruments made of stainless steel and aluminium including the Bell Lyre, Harmony Xylophone, Babel Tongue Drum, Tubular Bell Chimes and Tembo Aerophones.  All were provided with surface plates to ensure easy installation onto the pier deck.

The client also requested a bespoke instrument - 88 chimes which, when played from start to finish, would play 'I do like to be beside the seaside' for some added family fun.

Outcome

Coastal Activity Park manager David Collier said: “Our harsh seafront environment is notoriously unforgiving on metal installations, but six months in the outdoor musical instruments look as good as they did on installation day. The public reaction to them has been fantastic! From the off, contact with Percussion Play was both friendly and professional and we have seen this continue after sales.”

Visitors have indeed been enjoying the instruments with comments left on Trip Advisor such as “We both love playing on the musical instruments, and love it when we are playing on the beach and paddling in the sea you can hear the chimes from the pier!”

“A lovely new addition to the Boscombe beach area. We particularly love the musical tour.”