About Ventnor Isle of Wight
www.ventnorblog.com
Off the South Coast of England, just 3 hours from London and 1 hour from Southampton International Airport, the Isle of Wight is an idyllic microcosm of all the scenery that is characteristic of the south coast - rolling downland, forest, marshes, farmland, creeks, estuaries, sandy shores, rocky shores, - and Ventnor, tucked away at the southern tip of the Island, behind St Boniface Down, itself holds the 'sunshine record' for the entire UK (more hours of sunshine per year than even the Channel Islands or Scilly Islands)
Separated from the mainland by a short ferry trip and even shorter hovercraft trip, the Island is a diamond shape, 23 miles long by 12 deep. Ventnor is close to the southern apex. The island has cultural connections to, among many others, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, and Julia Margaret Cameron, has nationally important historical connotations, and provides a wide range of attractions and facilities for holiday-makers. In the late Sixties, the Island hosted a series of international pop festivals, featuring artists as significant as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, the Doors, Miles Davis, Chicago and Joni Mitchell.
Ventnor is arguably the best-preserved Victorian sea-side town in the entire British Isles. It is a very pretty coastal town, flanked by the highest down land on the island, and adjacent to the old village of Bonchurch. Most hotels have views over the English Channel, and the town retains its Victorian flavour, with hardly any inappropriate redevelopment to spoil its classic seaside Victoriana. Visiting the Island and Ventnor is like time-travelling back to a more peaceful and stylish Victorian era (and its also where Karl Marx worked on Das Kapital…)

Venues - for descriptions of Ventnor Jazz Divas Festival venues, click here.