THERE'S a free Christmas event for all the family this Sunday.

The Christmas Garden is back, to light up the Sandown Battery with festive spirit.

The community event will run from 4pm to 7pm to celebrate one of Sandown Bay’s most interesting monuments and cliff-top gardens, bringing the area to life.

The garden will host fantastic illuminations, seasonal craft and decoration workshops, tree dressing as well as music performances from Vectis Brass and Ventnor Exchange Community Choir.

There will be seasonal storytelling, the return of the Shadow Wall, and the chance to toast a marshmallow on the fire or dance in the snow.

There are even free homemade drinks and treats.

The event is a collaboration between The Common Space and Ventnor Exchange that seeks to breathe life into this fascinating, once forgotten public space, while giving people a chance to gather together for festivities on a dark winter's night.

The Christmas Garden is funded by The Common Space and local businesses Arc and Artecology. Down to the Coast has also lent support.

Sandown Barrack Battery is soon to be home to the National Poo Museum too, and there will be the chance to find out more on the night.

Mhairi Macaulay, of Ventnor Exchange, said: “We are very pleased to bring back this event after the weather washed us out last year.

"It feels great to have everyone in the local community gathering together just for the fun of it and it helps us not to forget these public spaces that need people to interact within them and bring them to life again.”

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