V&A to bring David Bowie Archive to Blackpool’s Showtown

The V&A has announced a national tour of highlights from its David Bowie archive, including a stint at Blackpool’s award-winning Showtown museum.

David Bowie: On Tour will run in Blackpool from Wed 30 jun 2027 – Sun 26 Sep. The experience features more than 100 highlights from the V&A’s collection.

Items will include Bowie’s legendary costumes, musical instruments, career-spanning photography and personal treasures, including the stopwatch he used when songwriting; plus never-before-seen items including Polaroids of make-up tests, a Ziggy Stardust-era acoustic guitar, unrealised scripts, and handwritten lyrics, performance notes and costumes from Bowie’s final albums, The Next Day and★ (Blackstar)

Bowie’s connection to Blackpool goes back 60 years, when he played live on the resort’s South Pier on Sun 29 May 1966 with his short-lived backing band The Buzz, three years before he released his breakthrough single Space Oddity.

Spencer Phillips, Chairman of the Blackpool Heritage and Museum Trust, which operates Showtown, said: “This is a hugely significant announcement for Showtown and for Blackpool as a whole as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of David Bowie’s live performance in the resort. This exciting new collaboration with the V&A demonstrates a national confidence in our award-winning museum and offers North West visitors an extraordinary chance to experience the genius of Bowie and his incredible creative legacy.”

Sir Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, said: “David Bowie: On Tour is a landmark national partnership for the V&A, bringing highlights from David Bowie’s extraordinary archive to audiences across the UK for the first time. Working with our colleagues in museums and venues nationwide, we’re opening up Bowie’s story in the places connected to his life and legacy, ensuring people across the country can experience these remarkable objects where they live, and be inspired by his enduring creativity.”

The opening section, Bowie Through a Lens, explores how photography shaped Bowie’s image and identity, featuring work by Terry O’Neill, Mick Rock, Sukita, Brian Ward and more. The second section, All the Somebody People, focuses on Bowie onstage and in the studio across four defining eras: Ziggy Stardust, Bowie’s Berlin, Let’s Dance and★ (Blackstar)

The third section, Hooked to the Silver Screen, reveals Bowie’s groundbreaking performances on TV and the silver screen, and the final section, I Can’t Give Everything Away, explores the items and personal possessions Bowie chose to keep, showing a creative mind constantly thinking about the next project.

Blackpool-born journalist, musician, author and cultural commentator, John Robb, said of the Blackpool tour stop: “There is something quite perfect about David Bowie: On Tour coming to Blackpool, a town built on the same stardust as the pop culture legend. Bowie and Blackpool both created magic out of imagination, and both hypnotise with their illuminations.”

Featured image credit: Mick Rock