THIN TUESDAY
Arts Council Refuses Funding for February Event
HUGH SULLIVAN
The Directors of Hastings Fat Tuesday CIC (HFT) announced this week that their flagship grassroots music festival, held annually on Shrove Tuesday and preceding days, will not go ahead in 2024, or not at least in the form which the town has come to expect.
Arts Council England (ACE), which over past years has made major contributions to the Fat Tuesday festival budget, has rejected the company’s application for funding in 2024. According to a press release issued on behalf of HFT, the Arts Council “has recognised the outstanding quality and ambition of the festival but cited lack of funds” as the reason for its withdrawal.
Shrove Tuesday falls on 13 February next year, and the Fat Tuesday celebrations should, as in previous years, have started on Friday 9th. Since its inauguration 14 years ago, the festival has established itself as a major event in the town’s calendar, probably the largest grassroots music events in the Southeast. Last year, HFT records show that the festival scheduled more than 300 live shows across five days, reaching aggregate live audiences of more than 27,000. 80% of the events were free, removing financial barriers for all and providing a host of benefits – not only to those attending but to the local economy, the education sector and to the 500+ grassroots musicians and freelancers who took part.
Director Adam Daly understands that the homeless crisis in Hastings has left the council unable to provide significant funds for cultural events. “But at a time when ACE has been announcing a much-needed five million pound investment in the grassroots music sector,” he says, “it does seem counter-intuitive for it not to support an organisation that has consistently had grassroots music at its heart. Even a scaled-back event still requires substantial funding to support the musicians who take part and the small dedicated team who deliver it.”
Co-director Sally Lampitt feels that the departure of the council from 1066 Country Marketing, coupled with the retirement of former marketing and major projects manager Kevin Boorman earlier this year, has had a major bearing on ACE’s withdrawal decision. “The Arts Council are always very aware of local authority support and like to feel there’s a strong cultural strategy in place that shares their vision,” she says. “Kevin was pivotal to this, and always supported and encouraged Hastings Fat Tuesday. His expertise and insight will be greatly missed.”
Another negative factor compounding the difficulties of setting up the festival in February 2024 was the uncertainty around venues. The closure in 2022 of St Mary in the Castle, where many of the chargeable Fat Tuesday events used to take place, left the White Rock Theatre as the only sizeable musical venue in the town. But the planned withdrawal of the Theatre’s management, Trafalgar Theatres, at the end of January, with no certainty of any transitional programming beyond that date, left HFT unable to commit any bookings for dates just a few days later. The arrival of the Guildhall Trust, who might well be supportive partners in future years, is too late this time round.
“The loss of Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival will be seismic for the town,” admits Daly. “It will impact an already fragile economic position and be a massive loss for audiences, for the local freelance industry and especially for the musicians who gain vital experience of live performance”.
The Directors say they are reviewing all possibilities around the festival and hope to continue the traditions of Mardi Gras in some significantly reduced form this February. But their focus for 2024 will be on ensuring that they continue to provide year-round support for emerging musicians. They’ve had funding for that part of their enterprise since 2021 from a number of sources, including Youth Music, The Chalk Cliff Trust, Lakedown Brewery, the Isabel Blackman Foundation, and the Magdalen and Lasher Trust.
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