Two German artists are coming to St Leonards in July to create a new, site-specific installation at the Electro Studio Project Space, which will be on display from 21st July 2018.

Mischpoke:Mönchengladbach, Farbe und Raum
PICTURE: Christian Gode

The two artists are known for working directly and responsively into spaces, taking inspiration from the fabric of the buildings they work in to construct minimalist and often brightly coloured installations. Elisabeth Sonneck’s primary concern is in the production of colour tones, sometimes layering paint to produce transitions and sometimes working with rolls of coloured paper. She is interested both in the emotional fields created this way and in colour as a residue of actions made over time. Christian Gode, who began his career as a carpenter before enrolling at art school, takes a structural approach to his interventions, drawing our attention to certain architectural features of the spaces in question and encouraging us to be aware of how we read these spaces and navigate them. They have never before been to
St Leonards and will be living in the area for one week while they work on their piece, revealing it at a preview and celebration on 21st July, 5-8pm.

The project space itself should give these artists something really interesting to work with. Electro Studios and the area around it was originally a builder’s yard, and the structure which now houses the studios was built in the 1890s by the grandfather of the current owner. The rooms Sonneck and Gode will be working in have the intimate scale associated with Victorian architecture at the same time as a no-nonsense utilitarianism which speaks to the building’s original function.

The area is, of course, important to the history of St Leonards in many ways. The site of the yard itself became St Leonards glorious modernist lido in the 1930s complete with concrete high dive and arching chalets and is now a grassy scrub land rolling onto the coastal cycle path. The building was turned into what was then and remains the only purpose-built artists’ studio space in Hastings and St Leonards in 1998, and still boasts reasonable rates and a thriving community of artists. Look out later in the year for further group exhibitions at this venue that work directly with the history of the lido (Memorial Device) and feature the artistic community around the studios (Self Comes to Mind).

• On the Fly will be open from 1-5pm and by appointment on the 22nd, 28th and 29th July, with a public preview from 5-8pm, 21st July.

• For more information about the artists go to elisabeth-sonneck.de and christiangode.de, and for more information about the Electro Studios Project Space visit electrostudiosprojectspace.co.uk

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

“The artist’s eye can see the familiar through a new and alternative lens,” writes Catherine Harvey, Keeper of Art and World Cultures, in the catalogue for the new exhibition as Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. “[Artists] make surprising connections, intriguing juxtapositions and share all sorts of new ideas.”

SoCo Artists are a group based in East Sussex who exhibit frequently together in a range of different venues. They have come together to work with objects from the museum’s collections, or aspects of the histories they touch on, to create new work which will be displayed in an integrated way throughout the museum for the duration of this exhibition.

Sinéid Codd, Chair of SoCo Artists, and part of the curatorial committee for this show writes “several artists view their research as a type of mystery or detective story – something to be solved. But the ‘truth’ is slippery, especially in the ‘museum’, where objects are dislocated from context; where the past is rightly continually re-evaluated in the light of the present, giving us fresh perspectives.”

Image by Sineid Codd

Oona Ball, for example, has been inspired by Charles Dawson’s collection of archaeological fakes to make and integrate a collection of film set props into the display – objects designed only to look like the real object they represent and which serve no other function. Jean Davey Winter’s work had previously come into contact with the Nez Perce tribe, native to North America, and finding evidence of this tribe in the archive, Davey Winter worked with their story as a starting point for her work. Maggie Hentor and Charlotte Snook were both inspired by the ambiguous records photographs can leave for us. Hentor was intrigued by a family photo album which seemed to have people deliberately removed from certain pictures and Snook worked with images which, by facial expression alone, seem to clearly show someone in a specific psychological state, but without any other evidence, it’s possible they do not.

Catherine continues, “It is true that every object has a story to tell, but also that they each have the potential for so many stories, both real and imagined. This is where working with artists proves both so challenging and inspiring, as it enriches the interaction with our collections for all of us involved with and visiting the museum”

The selected ‘Collect’ artists are: Oona Ball, Sinéid Codd, Roz Cran, Jean Davey Winter, Maggie Henton, Adrienne Hunter, Sue Johnson, Alex Leadbeater, Mary Morris, Kathleen Mullaniff, Jim Northover, Carly Ralph, Helen Scalway and Charlotte Snook.

• Collect will be open at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery from 7th July-30th  September. Free entrance.
Celebrate the project with the artists at the exhibition preview, on 6th July 6pm-8pm

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

“One of the things I’m interested in finding out is how the different spaces affect the sound and also how I behave as a performer.” she tells me. Harling has in her career performed all over the world as part of the Ivor Novello award winning Mediaeval Baebes, has worked with Berlin-based producer and DJ Stefan Rogall alongside Hugo Race (The Bad Seeds), Earl Zinger (Galliano) and Henry Rollins and is known locally for making music out of anything and everything in her Bev Lee Harling and The Kitchen Sink shows. She is stripping everything right back in this series. “Some spaces are very generous and give the sound back to you.” she says. “The large spaces can give you a lovely reverb, but in very small spaces you really are on your own as a performer, which creates a specific kind of intimacy but means you really have nowhere to hide.” And it’s not just the physics of the space that changes. “The library felt like a space which no one had been in for a long time.” she says. “One patron in particular got quite emotional when we walked in and welled up for the first few songs.”

Some of the spaces in the series have room for ten people in the audience, others 70. Tickets are free and anyone who wants to go just has to sign up. Three days before the performance names will be selected at random from the list and those people will be told where the meeting point is.

Harling, who grew up in Hastings, has had this series in planning for a while and hopes to run more if it proves successful. She started looking for the spaces by putting a call out on facebook, asking for suggestions of places people would love to hear music in or even just have the opportunity to visit. She was overwhelmed by responses, and a few which made the selection this time, are on the verge of changing forever. The last two of this series are on the 17th and 22nd June.

• For more information and to sign up go to eventbrite.co.uk

PICTURE: Georgie Scott

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

Artist and fine art printer Alexandra Drawbridge has been operating Solaris Print from a shop on Norman Road since last August, and her accompanying exhibition space has brought the town some real gems from some of our finest artists. As Solaris Print is fast becoming a hub for a thriving artistic community, HIP talks to Drawbridge about the journey so far and the exciting times ahead for the area.

“I had been running the business out of my living room in Bexhill before moving it here” she tells
me “with that set up it was quite difficult to grow.” We are in the office at the back of her
shop, looking out onto the sea over roof tops on a sunny afternoon. “I had a big opening in August, with an exhibition of my existing clients’ work – it was great, people were spilling
out onto the street.”

Drawbridge has been living and working as an artist in the area for fifteen years. Her practice as a digital artist began at art school and so the printing of artwork has always been an area of
keen interest to her. “For me it’s not just a matter of understanding the technical side. I understand the aesthetic side too and when I work with my clients it’s all about them and what they want. The best part of the work for me is when people are delighted with the finished print.” Being embedded in the artistic community here has also been key to getting her business off the ground. “Being part of a close network of artists has been fantastic for business – so much of what I’ve done here has come from meeting people, going to previews, talking to people, and doing shows together.”

Her clients include many international established artists. “So much of what’s worked here has been down to chance – things tend to go well, there are so many experienced artists and curators in the area.”  She continues, ‘for example, the last show here featured video artist Toby Tatum, we presented stills from his highly layered and textured work. On his way in to hang the exhibition, Toby bumped into curator  David Rhodes, who then spent a few hours helping to hang the show”

“Something really interesting is happening here,” she says, “I’m aware that my peers are doing really exciting things. I think people will look back on this time here and recognise it as an incredible place and time.”

The next exhibition will show the work of another celebrated artist, Mario Rossi. It’s a Front will present a new series of prints developed from watercolours. The series depicts shop fronts, restaurants and cafes from all over the world, all of which have been named after film titles.  A play on the watercolour travel sketch – the traditional approach the privileged classes took to recording their travels in the 18th and 19th centuries – the images shown here were all painted remotely, working from photographs taken from social media streams. “All our exhibitions have prints at their core but can include other kinds of work as well,” she tells me. “Mario will be building a whole canopy installation along one of the walls. I can’t wait to see it.”

• It’s a Front, Mario Rossi opens at Solaris Print, Norman Road on 28 April

• For more information see www.solarisprint.co.uk

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

Liz Gilmore, director of Jerwood Gallery has taken up the post of chair of the Hastings and Rother Cultural Leaders group.

Gilmore said “Hastings and Rother house a vibrant arts scene and a diverse plethora of creative people. The area is at an interesting point in its development and our job is to look to the future and ask questions such as what will the area need in five, ten or twenty years? What infrastructure will be needed? And how do we make sure everyone’s voice is reflected?”

The Hastings and Rother Cultural Leaders Group champions and supports the cultural development of the area  across all art forms, working with the council to help inform their cultural strategy and support its delivery. The group is made up of individuals and representatives of organisations operating at a strategic level within the cultural environment and within regeneration at a local, regional or national level who have influence and/or invest in the cultural environment of the area. They meet regularly and discus a mixture of standing items, such as development of arts education locally, and specific issues such as the future of the White Rock area. The group played an active role in the ROOT 1066 Festival, working with Polly Gifford, Festival Director, on bringing a range of art forms into the programme.

“As a group we also think about visitors to the area; who comes and who doesn’t at the moment.” says Gilmore. “At the Jerwood Gallery we have six years of data on our visitors so we have a great deal of intelligence to contribute to these discussions. Overall, looking to the future I think we’ll be able to measure our success when key leaders such as Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England, cite Hastings as a prime example of a key cultural hub nationally and internationally. We are nearly there and I know Hastings is very much recognised by Sir Nick and his colleagues. We should all be proud of that.”

Gilmore has been director of the Jerwood since it opened six years ago.  Gallery She replaces Arts consultant Paul Barnett, who has chaired the group for the last two years.

We will follow up later in the year with more information on the Cultural Leaders Group and its ambitions for the cultural future of the area so watch this space.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

This June a major, nationwide, mass-participation artwork will celebrate 100 years since some women gained the right to vote, and Hastings and St Leonards will be represented.

The Jerwood Gallery is one of 100 arts organisations taking part in PROCESSIONS, which will invite women* and girls across the UK to come together on the streets of Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London on Sunday 10 June 2018 in a living, moving portrait of women in the 21st century. Each organisation will be working with women artists to run an extensive public programme to make the 100 centenary banners which will be used on the day.

Kate Giles at Jerwood Gallery said, “the gallery would like to hear about and meet local women who are today’s campaigners. The ones who don’t let things lie, for whom justice and fairness matters. Perhaps they are running a local service that benefits the community, campaigning for the environment, or supporting people living with disabilities or mental health issues. They contribute to our community by giving time generously and really caring for the people whose lives they touch. They have the opportunity to be effective today because of the fairness and equality women fought for in the Suffragist movement 100 years ago.”

St Leonards based artist Janey Mofatt will be running textile workshops with selected participants to make the banner. Moffatt said “I’m absolutely thrilled to be involved, as a mother to young children I’m very aware of the pressures on women. We can still be hampered by laws that work against us. At least now equality is on the table thanks to the women who have fought before us, but we still have a long way to go.” In these workshops women will have the opportunity to learn interesting and experimental textile techniques and share stories about how they became change makers. “We’ll be continuing a long tradition of women coming together over textile work, and another great thing about the project is that those who take part will feel really connected to each other when they march with us in June”.

There will be four workshops at Jerwood Gallery on Saturday afternoons in April and May. The selected participants will design and make the banner together, but no sewing experience is required.

*those who identify as women or non-binary

• If you know a woman you would like to nominate to be part of the PROCESSIONS group, please get in touch by emailing or ringing the gallery on 01424 728377.

• PROCESSIONS is produced by Artichoke, the UK’s largest producer of art in the public realm, as part of 14-18 NOW, the UK’s official arts programme for the First World War centenary.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent Press. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

Celebrated artists Danny Pockets and Shuby have worked together at the Artist Led Collective Compendium Studios in St Leonards for six years. A new exhibition at The St Leonards on London Road shows previously unseen work from both of these artists. Pockets presents Objects, a series of work motivated by mechanical drawings, and the objectification of women. Shuby shows a range of her playfully subversive work from various points in her career including new, layered, perspex presentations of her images developed in partnership with her new gallery in Germany, Galerie-F.

Pockets had been working on Objects when he heard of the death of David Bowie. Struck by how productive and creative a life Bowie had led, he was pulled towards a new focus in his work inspired by the artist. The diagnosis this same year of a serious illness has increased Pockets’ creative output and led to commitment to a busy schedule of international, London and local exhibitions. You may have seen his exhibition BLLDZR last year at the blackShed Gallery in Robertsbridge, which responds directly to Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes video, amongst other themes. Next month he is showing fifty of his large-scale works in a solo exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall.

Pockets’ paintings were the first to be shown in the St. Leonard Pub, kick-starting a consistently impressive roster of local artists. He has a great affection for the pub and its owners Chris and Phil, and was keen to exhibit here again, finishing a large wasp painting in his signature style specially for the show. His other works on display are all part of Objects, which includes a series of nine square works that draw on the iconography of the instruction manual. These seem to indulge a straightforward, geeky pleasure in both the object represented and the explanatory nature of the diagram. Nudes are presented alongside and, continuing this aesthetic, include images of women in pornographic poses alongside the machines and mechanisms. The women are given the same status as the other items depicted and this creates a complex feminist statement from an artist for whom, as a heterosexual man, these images are not neutral.

Hastings and St Leonards residents will be familiar with Shuby’s grinning bunny face which can be seen as you head up the Brassey Steps from America Ground. Much of her work on show at the St Leonard was produced in the first instance for a solo show in Soho last year which celebrated the diverse culture of retro Soho; its film culture and sex industry, while acknowledging the impact of extreme gentrification on this world. A giant sign announces, ‘This Is The Spot!’ with pink light bulbs emphasising T, I, T, S! Basking in this light are Shuby’s prints and collaged posters. One features a documentary called Take Your Clothes Off and Live which had been a censor-busting vehicle for showing naked women. Like many such films, it promised sex but didn’t really deliver. This idea of a promise unfulfilled is continued in a pair of oversized x-ray specs silk screen printed on mirror, inspired by the kind of adverts you find in comic books. Her work is punctuated with her signature bananas and bunny faces and also shown is her Lone Ranger Banana Guns, a twist on Warhol’s famous prints, where this icon of American machismo is holding a banana instead of a gun.

Pockets’ and Shuby’s work exhibited here together, provides a unique insight into how working in a shared studio space has influenced both their work. There are similarities and common practices and themes, but also differences which clearly define their individuality as prominent artists.

• The St Leonard Pub, 16-18 London Road, St Leonards, For more info call 01424 272332 or visit 

Find out more about the artists at shuby and Danny Pockets

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent Press. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

If you visited Oska Lappin’s open studio during Coastal Currents last September, you will be familiar with the splashy and expressive red white and blue mixed media woodcuts which make up her Scary Amerika series. These were produced during an intense six-month period immediately following Donald Trump’s inauguration. As she was working on the images, Lappin was also writing poetry and the two are combined in an artist’s book which has now been published by Seditionaries.

Her previous work has at times nodded to the book format; dialogue boxes often give her characters a voice and she has always written poetry, but this is the first time her words and images have come together in this way. “Neither came first.” Lappin explains, “There was a real synchronicity about how it all happened.” The book is a sweary, seedy journey through the dark underbelly of the American collective consciousness, with characters from deep within the country’s cultural psyche (The Statue of Liberty, Pinocchio, the cheerleader, the politician) brought to life to enact a variety of neuroses and atrocities. “I was always in trouble as a child for writing swear words everywhere” she tells me. “I looked like such a nice girl, it really shocked everyone.”

Lappin grew up in New England with her father, who is also an artist. “I felt like an outsider in America. I didn’t want the things the capitalist America wanted me to want.” she says. “While there is a lot of anxiety around Trump’s presidency, I find it quite difficult to talk to other Americans about the things I’ve always found frightening about the place, like the ideology behind the National Rifle Association and how distraught some people were over the prospect of social healthcare. To me, it’s this kind of nationalism which has led the country to where it is now. I want to remind people that even in the golden years of Obama and Kennedy, there was still bullying – with Obama there was still drones.”

Lappin moved to London in 1993 and quickly felt more in tune with her surroundings. Moving to St Leonards in 1999, she now finds inspiration every time she steps outside. “There are so many eccentrics here, narratives just present themselves to me.” she says. The area has had a further advantage for her work; cheap studio rents have meant less pressure to focus on making her work pay. “I’ve been able to work every day with authenticity. My dad would always say, concentrate on doing the work and the opportunities will come to you. I’ve been able to do that here, and they have.”

The original mixed media woodcuts for Scary Amerika are now on display in the Fabbrica del Vapore gallery in Milan as part of an exhibition called Axis, curated by fellow St Leonards artist Alan Rankle. This gallery now represents Lappin in Italy and are giving her a solo show in September. Her work is also currently on show at the Stables Gallery as part of their Prints with a Point exhibition until the end of March.

Scary Amerika can be purchased from the Stables Theatre and Art Centre, The Cowley Club on London Road, Brighton and the Rye Art Gallery and De La Warr pavilion. For more information go here

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent Press. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

blackShed Gallery, 17th February – 31st March

HIP talks to filmmaker and Electric Palace cinema owner, Rebecca E Marshall, as she prepares to unveil her latest project, Fever of the Light, which opens at the blackShed Gallery on 17th February.

Marshall is well known for her documentary film making, and this will be her first public video art piece. “I started as a video artist, my degree was in installation video”, Marshall says, “I’ve really enjoyed returning to this format.”

Fever of the Light is a visual letter to the future, made for when her son turns eighteen in 2033, which is also when humanity will be preparing for the first manned mission to Mars. Three screens will play three stories simultaneously – moments in the lives of a hermit, a child and an astronaut. Marshall hopes that by witnessing them, a sense of what connects these stories, and us all, will emerge in different and personal ways for everyone who sees it.  “I wanted a straightforward way to communicate something of what I’ve learned to my son. To do this I felt it was important to keep the visual language simple and honest.”

The project started with Marshall’s trip to Siberia to make a documentary about the famous hermit, Agafia Lykov. “I became obsessed with her story”, Marshall says, “but then when I had the chance to actually go I was struck by how my expectations were blown away. I thought I’d find someone living a very strange life, I’d seen all these drawings she’d made and saw this as an example of the human need to create and communicate. It turned out she only made the drawings for journalists because they’d asked her to. She doesn’t have time to draw, she’s busy just staying alive. And her life made so much sense! It was the rest of the world which seemed odd in comparison. I wanted to run a parallel project to the documentary which brought this to the surface.”

Marshall then looked to other examples of everyday life and her own family footage. Her experiences as a new mother form the second of these three stories.

The third screen shows a team of NASA scientist/astronauts who went into isolation for a year as training for the first manned mission to Mars. On a volcano in Hawaii, they explored ways to  keep themselves alive and able to cope with the experience over time. “I contacted them to see if I could ask them questions while they were there and they sent video diaries; of them exercising, walking on lava, rehydrating their food.” 

“As I was working I discovered more and more parallels across these stories. They’re all about being in a position where you have to take care of your immediate needs, contain invented rituals and speak to an expanded sense of time. It’s possible to see one as being about the past, one the present and one the future but these ideas can also shift between all three.”

And what is the message Marshall wants to pass on to her child? “Don’t forget to keep looking around you at all times, the world and details, and to question everything. To value storytelling, it’s all that links us. Technology changes but our desire to explore and share doesn’t.”

Fever of the Light is at The blackShed Gallery, Robertsbridge: 17 February – 31 March 2018, Free and the Hastings Museum talk and appearance, Saturday 10 March: 2pm – 3.30pm

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent Press. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

You can’t throw a pebble in Hastings and St Leonards without hitting a festival – in fact most articles in this supplement contain details on at least one. Here is a quick round up of those which don’t fit neatly into an art form:

For young and amateur performers, Hastings Musical Festival gets going from 22 February to 17 March. Participants are judged to a high standard in classical music, rock, dance and speech and drama. Changes are on the horizon as the festival has just appointed its first chief executive, Helen Winning, so watch this space.

Then welcome summer with Jack in the Green, 4 to 7 May. This festival is currently in development and promises the usual extensive programme of music and Morris dancing. It culminates in the wild costumed parade up to the West Hill on Bank Holiday Monday. The dancing up of the dawn on Tuesday 1 May rounds off the festival with a touch of magic.

The Stade Saturdays programme of free music and performance will kick off in June and run weekly until October. Now in its seventh year, expect big summer concerts, circus and dance. Hastings Borough Council’s partnership is set to continue with the international touring initiative, Coasters, promising fabulous family friendly spectacle. The programme will be confirmed in spring.

Next up is Hastings Fringe Comedy Festival, from 13 to 17 June. In its third year, this festival is expanding again – On the Rocks and The Palace will be helping the eight old town venues of previous festivals host an outlandish 150 comedy shows over these 5 days.

The Hastings Midsummer Fish Festival is back for a fifth year on 23 and 24 June on the Stade Open Space. This festival celebrates the town’s excellent fishery as well as other local produce, with over 30 different traders, cooking demonstrations from top local chefs, and non-stop live music and entertainment.

St Leonards Festival returns in 2018 on Saturday 30 June, 12 noon – 10pm with a theme of St Leonards Ascending. The free family community festival in Warrior Square celebrates the most culturally diverse population for 40 miles with bands, entertainments and a parade, plus the ever-popular street market in Kings Road. It’s back with the 18 Hours team, who worked on the first ever St Leonards Festival in 2006. Anyone interested in taking part in the festival as a stallholder, performer, volunteer, sponsor or supporter should email office@18hours.org.uk

And then no matter what you are, no matter who you are, on Sunday 15 July you will be a pirate … but more on that later in the year.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this article from Hastings Independent Press. The future of this volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.

Barefoot Opera – ‘Hastings and St. Leonard’s very own opera company’ – has been awarded an Arts Council Research and Development Grant for the first stage of what promises to be an exciting new project involving local people and professional singers. The company have now built quite a reputation for their vibrant, youthful and accessible performances, for example last month’s well attended and highly acclaimed L’incoronazione di Poppea at St. Mary in the Castle. With this new project, the working title of which is A Town, Barefoot Opera plans to be yet more innovative and inclusive, involving people of all ages, singing abilities and backgrounds. It builds on the success of Barefoot Opera’s CLASH!, which involved seven Hastings’ choirs and culminated in the performance of Bayeux!, a choral extravaganza written and composed by the eminent Orlando Gough. The same composer will be working on A Town, this time in collaboration with the librettist Stephen Plaice.

Central to the new opera will be the voices and stories of all the communities collaborating in its production. Beginning in April 2018, the first stage of A Town will involve a series of far-reaching workshops in and around the communities of Hastings and Rother. The workshops are divided into singing workshops and talking workshops for those who don’t feel like singing but might want to be involved or at least share their story and be part of the opera’s narrative. The project will run for two years, culminating in a performance at the De La Warr Pavilion in Spring 2020.

All are welcome and the workshops are free to attend. For further details, see the Barefoot Opera website: www.barefootopera.com.

Have you got what it takes to join the Hastings Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras Monarchy? Hastings Fat Tuesday means colour, costume, creativity and carnival spirit in abundance, and in all these the Mardi Gras Monarchy leads the way at the head of the hugely popular Umbrella Parade.

Co-founder and festival organiser Adam Daly said, “Each year the town wholeheartedly embraces Hastings Fat Tuesday and everything it stands for, and we’re now inviting those keen to fully unleash their carnival spirit to apply for the 2018 Mardi Gras Monarchy. Let your imaginations run wild! We have four non-gender specific roles up for grabs: The King, The Queen, The Knave and The Slut, who will be at the forefront of the UK’s largest Mardi Gras celebration.”

Interested parties have until Twelfth Night (6th January) to apply. “This is when the carnival season traditionally gets underway.”, says Daly.

Duties will include leading the Umbrella Parade and representing Hastings Fat Tuesday at spin-off events. The four winners will each receive a coveted Passport to Hastings & St Leonards, entitling them to a plethora of gifts and freebies from across our great town.

Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival (9th-13th February 2018) is the UK’s largest Mardi Gras celebration which opens its doors to a wealth of local, national and international music talent and music fans alike. The festival borrows heavily from the New Orleans take on Mardi Gras, combining the enjoyment of good music, a flair for dressing up and partying.

Apply online by sharing your Mardi Gras Manifesto and describing how you plan to unleash your inner carnival spirit. You can even send in a short video (max 30 seconds) on why you have what it takes to be Mardi Gras King/Queen/Knave/Slut. Entries will be considered by the Hastings Fat Tuesday team and those shortlisted will go forward to a public vote via the Hastings Fat Tuesday Facebook page, where contestants will be whittled down to three finalists for each character.

The final decision on the 2018 Mardi Gras Monarchy will be made via a live ballot vote on the night of the Mardi Gras Grand Ball (Saturday 10th February 2018 at St Mary in the Castle).

Contestants may apply for one character only.

Applications should be made online at hastingsfattuesday.co.uk.  Applications close at midnight on Saturday 6th January, otherwise known as Twelfth Night – when the carnival season traditionally gets underway.

For more information, go to hastingsfattuesday.co.uk

The sandstone walls of Undercliff House have, for the last few months, been adorned with scenes of Hastings and South London. They are large, delicate watercolours depicting scenes of glassy skies, transient weather conditions and distant activity seen through the window of a domestic interior.

This small and intimate display shows the early work of celebrated Hastings artist, Laetitia Yhap and marks the fiftieth anniversary of her arrival in Hastings. She had recently finished at London’s Slade School of Art and her move to Hastings didn’t immediately impact her painting. Gradually though, she was becoming immersed in Hastings, and by the late seventies she had found the subject she would come to focus on exclusively for the next twenty years – the fishing community of Hastings and the portion of their lives spent on the Stade. The paintings at Undercliff House are from this decade of transition.

Yhap and her then partner were both working as artists when they decided to look for a place on the coast. He was teaching at the Slade and she had been a student there. “There was a feeling that if you were an artist you had to be in London”, she tells me, “but we both needed to be by the sea for at least a portion of our time, he had grown up in East Anglia and, though I was born in London, I had also become used to having access to the sea. We still needed to be within easy reach of London for work but needed a place which felt removed enough for it be different … there was no point in being in Brighton, of course.”

In March, they spent a day driving along the south coast looking for somewhere they could see themselves settling and by the time they arrived in St Leonards it had started snowing. “We couldn’t even get out of the car,” Yhap tells me, “but as we drove along the front I felt it would be OK; the geography of the place and the contrasting architecture, and the fact it was so run down – I could tell there would be something here.”

On a more thorough recce she soon found the house in Old Town in which she still lives. “The view has barely changed at all but the town then bears no resemblance to now. It was impossible to buy a vegetable on the High Street and George Street still had traffic. I’d grown up with street markets. So I grew vegetables and we brought everything else with us, coffee, cheese – this went on for a long time.”

With her life still based in London, for the first few years she found herself making secret day trips to the town, “I’d walk about trying to absorb something or other, find out what this place was about just by being here, and then jump on the train back to London. It was my secret with myself and how the place started having an effect on me. It was a significant decision for me to turn my back on London, I didn’t like living this half-life and the thought of being in London to attend all the private views was unsatisfactory, so I finally decided to spend most of my time down here.”

The paintings on display in Undercliff House are from this transitional period, most are the large watercolours she had gained much respect for towards the end of her time at the Slade. “It felt like I never had a studio, just a window sill and so that became the view I painted – it provided a useful surface, things could be seen through it or things may land on it. I knew I wanted to bring figures back into my work – something as an art student I had felt was not acceptable, so working on a view from my window I could start to introduce small characters into my paintings by engaging them in activity in the distance.”

The last of these paintings shows the window pane broken and a large flock of birds circling above. The painting holds an enormous sense of release and freedom. “A chair had bashed into the window, it had been an accident, and I knew I had to paint it like that.”, she says. This was 1974.

Also in 1974 she found herself on the beach closest to her house watching the fishermen. She took out whatever paper she could find in her bag and started drawing. She would go back on an almost daily basis – eventually going to sea, getting her hands on the work itself and becoming an integrated part of life on the Stade in her own right. The paintings she produced over these subsequent years were displayed at the Stade Hall in 2015 and are in private and public collections internationally.

Visitors can expect guests from the world of illustration and over 75 stalls selling unique illustrated goods from books, zines and prints, to cards, badges and ceramics. A programme of talks, workshops, screenings and live drawing will also be happening throughout the weekend. Excitingly, HiFest is introducing an animation fringe festival to this year’s extravoganza, which will take place at the Palace and is free to attend and open to all.

This year you can also see work by award-winning reportage illustrator Tim King, who will be exhibiting original pieces from his Drawn On Real Life project, after he documented every day of 2016 through drawing. Local illustrator Stewart Walton will be exhibiting drawings he made on-stage at Glastonbury Festival over the years, offering an extraordinary viewpoint of the stars who performed there.

Locations: The Printworks and other various participating venues around The America Ground, Hastings, including Hi-Store, The Palace, Cake Room and Wow and Flutter.

Tickets: £5 adult / £4 student / Under 16’s free

For more information and the full programme see www.hifest.co.uk

At Dragon Bar, George Street from 1 December

Local artist and longstanding member of the HIP family, Kim Batty is opening an exhibition of limited edition prints at the Dragon Bar in December.

The work celebrates the majesty of Hastings’ Alexandra park, which stretches for 2.5 miles through the town and contains a spectacular arboretum with one of the best collections of trees in the UK. Conservation has long been a theme of Batty’s work, but the subject of this series has a special significance for her. “I live by the park and I run in it, so I see its splendour throughout the year. All the seasons can be seen in this work.”

Many will be familiar with Batty’s work, she has been working and exhibiting in Hastings and St Leonards over the last 6 years. She studied in Manchester and is also a political cartoonist, illustrator and journalist. In this show she presents a more naturalistic exploration of wildlife than you may have seen in her last exhibition, which combined wild animals and deep space. Some of these pieces are impressionist and some are scratchy collections of ink and paint. The prints are all for sale, affordable and framed and there is also a series of drawings.

Alexandra Wonderama at Dragon Bar, Mon – Sat 12 – 11pm and Sun 12 – 10.30pm as part of the Old Town Christmas Fair starting 2 December.

www.kimbatty.co.uk

David Thomas Broughton – folk singer/avant-garde performer and man with a guitar, a loop pedal and a seemingly longstanding desire to be punched in the face by a member of the audience – will be coming to the Printworks this November as part of an international tour.

Broughton has a loyal tribe of supporters and counts artist and illustrator David Shrigley as a fan. Described as writing ‘beautiful songs which he then tries to subvert’, he creates shows that are part gig and part performance art. As a friend and colleague comments, ‘It’s like there’s one guy who wants to play his music and another who wants to disrupt that process as much as possible and they’re both the same person’. This results in quite a tense relationship with the audience as he pushes them – and often they push back. He has been known to duet with a rape alarm and has, in the past, incorporated aggressive heckles, into the music, thanks to the loop pedal.

The extent to which his on-stage persona and off-stage self overlap is a mystery to many, but the softly spoken Yorkshire man with an interest in kingfishers and a general love of the natural world also seems to have some sort of relationship with rage. And those who advise that he could have a pretty good music career, if only he focused on the songs themselves, seem to miss the point: he is an artist who takes things in his own direction because there is just no alternative.

While I can’t tell you what to expect from this performance, I can tell you that it will be whatever Broughton wants it to be – that and nothing else.

Saturday 18 November 2017, The Printworks, 7.30pm, support from Otti Albeitz and Howie Reeve. Tickets £5 plus 50p booking fee from We Got Tickets: www.wegottickets.com/event/416911

Sophie Shaw talks to John Knowles about how the independent theatre scene is on the rise in Hastings and St Leonards in advance of his latest show Hitleria Pizzeria, Parts I&II

John Knowles moved to Hastings in 1999. Many HIP readers will be familiar with his work: he has variously been involved in running Coastal Currents, setting up the St Leonards Festival and running the theatre in the Observer building during its time as a community hub.

‘The pub theatre scene is usually where independent theatre thrives,’ he tells me, ‘but that hasn’t been the case here. There is such a strong pub music scene, where bands play for free, and it has been difficult for paid for shows to gain any traction. I strongly believe that theatre is for everyone and prices should be accessible, but equally it costs money to put shows on and that has to come from somewhere.’

So, what is it that’s changing? ‘The influx of people to the town. Theatre is a collaborative art form and needs a community of practitioners to flourish. Theatremakers have been arriving in numbers and are willing to take risks, making it easier to put on new and experimental shows. We haven’t solved our problems, but we are becoming a more powerful group. We are in the process of setting up a steering group to look out for the sectors interests, lobby local government and provide support.’

And the future? What lies there? Knowles wants to push the town as a great place to develop new writing. ‘The quality of actors coming into the town makes it much easier to put on new plays here.’ He is talking in the run-up to his show Hitleria Pizzeria, which opens at The Garage on 9 November. Set in a non-specific eastern European country, Part I of this absurdist comedy sees the owner of a local bar start wearing a Hitler moustache. The entrance of a young revolutionary soldier provides a catalyst for a series of interactions about life, death, loyalty and sacrifice. Audiences may remember this from last year, but the show now comes with a new second act. Part II picks up the story five years later, in the age of the Oligarchs, where PR and control of the media are on the agenda. Starring Sidney Kean (an award-winning actor new to the area), the show has gained interest from the post-Soviet bloc, with readings at the National Theatre of Serbia under discussion and a producer in Belgrade looking to turn it into a feature film. Catch it in St Leonards first though.

Hiterlia Pizzeria, Parts I & II, 9–11 November 2017, The Garage, through the Horse and Groom, 4 Mercatoria, St Leonards on Sea, tickets £12 (£10 conc.) from https://hp-parts1and2.bpt.me

 And if you’re a theatremaker interested in a steering group for the local scene, Knowles would like to hear from you at fetchtheatre@gmail.com

Sophie Shaw talks to Jane Gordon as she launches Hastings Early Music Festival

‘We’re talking about historically informed performances,’ says Gordon, who is talking me through the Early Music Festival, launching in Hastings in November. ‘It doesn’t mean very old obscure music, though we enjoy putting that on, too – it can mean Mozart or even twentieth-century composers. The important thing is to perform the music in context and produce the kinds of sounds that we imagine would have been heard at the time the music was written.’ Using instruments from the right time period is key so, alongside more familiar violins and soprano soloists, audiences can expect harpsicords and baroque lutes. (‘A baroque flute?’ I ask, mishearing. ‘That, too,’ she replies.)

A critically acclaimed violinist who has performed as guest leader in a range of orchestras and ensembles internationally, Gordon explains that the first violinist is the orchestra leader. ‘It’s a particularly important role when there isn’t a conductor, which was typical in the baroque period.’ She is also part of the piano trio (made up of a piano, violin and cello), opening the festival with a showcase of some of the best music written for such an ensemble.

Through her work, she’s travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and America and has met a number of world-class musicians along the way. ‘The people I’m inviting to perform at this festival are all established artists of international calibre, but many also have a Sussex connection. We make a point of creating a more personal connection between artists and the audience: there will be talking from the stage to put the music into context, particularly in our open rehearsals and artist in conversation events, and the players will happily chat to audiences in the bar after the show.

‘Being a performer is really fun, and there’s something about performing that gives you a real sense of connection to the various places you perform in. Many of us musicians get to a certain point in our careers though, having done a lot of touring, when we want to develop something of our own. I’ve always wanted to set up a festival.’

I ask Gordon where her favourite place to perform is. ‘Sydney opera house was great,’ she responds, ‘but Vienna is certainly one of my favourite cities as it’s so historic. I can walk the streets where Beethoven walked, and everyone loves classical music – the old and young come out together.’

Does she think that’s not so true in the UK?, I ask. ‘Everything’s so centralized around the capital,’ she says. ‘That’s why I wanted to start this in Hastings – to help with the flow of world-class music being performed outside of London.’

And where better! We look forward to seeing the shows.

 Early Music Festival at Opus Theatre and Kino-Teatre, 24–26 November 2017. For more information and tickets, see www.hemf.co.uk. Early bird discount available for 24–25 November.

HIP talks to Gemskii, the one-woman force behind Conscious Theatre and Glenys Jacques of Electric Palace about this production, coming soon to Hastings Old Town, on how it all came about, and the formidable Joan Littlewood herself.

“I was taught by great comic and actor Ken Campbell.” Says Gemskii. “He said I was a reincarnation of Littlewood – he said, ‘you’re brilliant but no-one likes you’.”

This was nine years ago at East 15, the famous acting school founded in 1961 to take forward Littlewood’s unique approach to theatre making. “She was a woman in a man’s world, swore like a trooper, could be fiercely furious at a moment’s notice, and often reduced people to tears. Her Theatre Workshop pioneered new ways of theatre making, working with ensemble casts – people could be asked to switch roles from one night to the next to make sure no-one got too attached to what they were doing. She turned down Michael Caine saying ‘you’ll only ever be a star’. She also championed strong, rounded female characters, and directed the first openly gay character and the first black character in a central role in British theatre”.

“When the centenary of Littlewood’s birth was approaching, in 2014, I decided to collaborate with East 15 on a show to celebrate her life and work”, she continues. There was a cast of six, a musical director and a publicist. But a dispute over rights meant the school pulled out just four weeks before the show was due to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “It was a horrible experience, the worst time of my life, but the idea of failure was worse so I decided to take it to Edinburgh on my own”.

Taking a complex multi-character show and turning it into a one-woman performance was a challenge. One of the characters, as the name suggests, is Barbara Windsor. “The idea of playing her was outside my comfort zone to say the least, so I did an eight-hour improvisation at London Pride that year, in full costume, to get her character – now it’s the strongest character in the show.”

By the time Edinburgh came around, the show was up and running but not yet perfected. It got three star reviews, “which was fair,” says Gemskii, “it contained some schoolgirl errors, the show needs to be sharp and there is no room for these”. She took the production on tour, continued to hone it, and took it on tour again – her most recent run included a performance in the Brighton fringe, where it got five star reviews and was described as ‘outstanding’.

And this was where Jacques, saw the show. “It reminded me immediately of all the stuff I saw in the 70s” she says, “feminist theatre with a grass roots way of doing things, people working hard to create the experience.”

“It will be interesting to intelligent people, people who love theatre and love the theatre”, says Gemskii. “She was no fool, so I can’t do something foolish with her story.” People who remember Littlewood’s work and the time she was working and theatre students in particular will get a lot out of the show. Jacques continues “I thought it would be perfect for the Electric Cinema, because of the community and also the intimacy of the space. I think people might be inspired to think ‘I could do this – I could do something like this at the Electric Palace’”.

A last word from Gemskii on the show? “Just that I really enjoy doing it, it’s multi skilled, with tap and puppetry, I pretend to be a boy, I pretend to be a girl like I am, I pretend to be a girl like I’m not … and I’ve fallen in love with Joan.”

Joan, Babs and Shelagh Too, Conscious Theatre, Friday 29 September Electric Palace, tickets £10, electricpalacecinema.com

Stage Left Project presents ‘Les Chemins de L’Amour’ at St Mary in the Castle, 1st August

Soprano Chiara Vinci, known locally for her work with Barefoot Opera, has teamed up with composer and musician, Tom Clarkson and producer Hanna Deeble, known for the Lantern Society’s monthly nights at the Printworks, to form a new music/theatre company, Stage Left Project.  It launches on 1st August with a playfully interactive operatic show which takes place in various spaces in St Mary in the Castle.

In ‘Les Chemins de L’Amour (The Pathways of Love) the company will take you on a journey through music, drawing on 20th century composers Debussy, Satie, Poulenc and Kurt Weill and the Jazz Manouche, or Gypsy Jazz, of Django Reinhardt. Prepare to be beguiled while you are guided through the romance and seediness of Parisian street life and later the after-hours of the cabaret bar in the crypts of St Mary in the Castle. Those who have seen Vinci and Clarkson perform together before (for example, at the Albion last November) will be familiar with the sense of theatre they bring to their performances. Here they take this further, joined by musician and composer Laurence Panter, they recreate 1930s Paris in various spaces throughout the venue and invite a small audience to follow them through the building and move around them as they perform.

1st August – 6.30pm and 8.30pm. One hour long promenade performances, limited to just 25 tickets in each group. Tickets are available through the company’s website www.stageleftproject.co.uk

The “Nearly on the” Beach Concert is now in its 29th year and is all set to once again launch Old Town Carnival Week. 

The best local bands will be performing at the Stade on Saturday 29th July 2pm – 8m and Sunday 30th July 1pm – 7pm over the ( fully accessible) festival weekend.

This free family-friendly event is all about raising money for three charities: Hastings RNLI, Pett Level Inshore Rescue Boat and Hastings Sea Cadets. Last year, despite heavy rain, the concerts raised £7,500, and the organisers are hoping to beat this amount this year.

New to the programme is Beach Concert T-Shirts Through the Ages on Saturday, so if you have a Beach Concert T-shirt from a previous year, dig it out and bring it along – at 3.30pm a prize will be awarded for the “oldest” one there.

On Sunday the site will open at 10am for breakfast, which will be served until noon, accompanied by Swing Street – there should be some dancers coming along too. – Two local films will be being played in the Stade Hall between 11am and 6pm: I Love this Town by Glen Venness and The Ghost of Dunkirk about an old Hastings lifeboat called the “Cyril and Lillian Bishop”.

Pissarro’s and The Red Lion at Brede will be running the BBQ and the FILO will be providing a full bar with beers, lagers, wine and bubbly. Tea, coffee and soft drinks will also be available.

All proceeds will be going to the event’s three charities, so look out for collectors wearing yellow T-shirts on the day – both on site and throughout the town. There will be a merchandise stall selling T-Shirts, badges, mugs and fridge magnets, all designed by Picturemaps, which will also be available to buy around town at The Filo, The Anchor, The Crown, Porters Wine Bar, The Hastings Arms and the History House in Courthouse Street.

Some seating will be set up on site, and a level synthetic lawn will be laid to provide plenty of good spots to put down a rug or your own chairs. So, grab a spot, make yourselves comfy and enjoy the afternoon. Please note that alcohol cannot be brought onto the site, but a wide range of beverages, including draught beers, lagers & cider will be available on to purchase at reasonable prices.

The bands performing are:

Saturday 29th July: 2pm, Rhythm Fields, 2.45pm, The Rocking Ambassadors, 4pm, Dead Calm, 5.15pm, Local Heroes, 6.30pm, Blues Bro Show.

Sunday 30th July, 10.30am, Swing Street, 1pm, DJ Wendy May, 2pm, Alibi, 3pm, Brent Hutchinson Blues, 4.15pm, Pete Prescott Band performing The Sgt. Pepper Album “Live”, 5.45pm, The Rockitmen.

This event could not happen without the great sponsorship and support from local companies including John Bray & Sons, Alfa Electric Ltd, Skinners Sheds, Priory Meadow, Karma Security, Judges Bakery, Trade Paints, Mike Raxworthy Music and many others around the town.

With the widely-anticipated Opus Theatre on the verge of opening in Hastings, HIP interviews British-Argentinian composer Polo Piatti, the driving force behind the venture, about how the project came about and why it’s all so exciting.

Piatti is well known in Hastings for founding the Hastings Sinfonia and the International Composers festival, as well as for being an internationally renowned composer and pianist.

When looking for a venue for a specific event, a friend introduced him to His Place Community Church. This church was built in 1855 as a congressional church for a community style of worship, where it is important for the congregation to be able to hear themselves and feel a part of the whole. ‘I visited and noticed the acoustics,’ says Piatti. ‘When the church was designed each aspect of the architecture and furnishings were made to maximize the acoustics, the ceiling, the pews, the altar were all designed around this’. Reportedly a whisper from the pulpit can be heard clearly from the back of the balcony.

‘I asked the trustees, what do they do with this space during the week?’. Not much, as it turns out, furthermore, the listed building is on the UKs heritage risk list and in urgent need of repair. The organ, which provides an elaborate wooden focal point within the church, also required attention.

‘We have a shortage of medium or large performance venues in Hastings so I suggested setting one up here on the condition we could have absolute autonomy, and the Church agreed. We are not part of the church at all, we even use a different entrance. The church holds services only on Sunday and in return we will raise money for the building and bring people in.’

And what will audiences be able to expect from this new venue? ‘All kinds of performance, and everything will be acoustic, or very low amplified’ he continues ‘not rock and roll music, that is very well catered for in Hastings’. Two events in the upcoming programme for Opus have been announced to date, Tenors Unlimited, a classical crossover quartet, are booked for a Christmas concert and in August, a new theatre company from Mersyside will perform The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – an adaptation by Tom McLennan of the famous book about Hastings by Robert Tressell. ‘Its very relevant to today, what they are doing’ comments Piatti.

‘This is not going to run on a commercial basis,’ Piatti explains, ‘it will be run on an artistic basis and especially in the first year it’s most important to protect the reputation of the place. It’s important that people know that when something is here you’re going to get good quality. This is the best way to make enemies, but I don’t care, I’m too old for that’.

And what is quality? For Piatti this is clear, ‘We accept any art form but it has to have meaning. Create beauty, speak truth, do good, as Plato says in his Republic’ .

Piatti has been overwhelmed by the support the project has garnered. As well as a ready team of volunteers, the Troxy in Limehouse has donated lighting and rigging for the Opus, and – cherry on the cake for this new venture – an anonymous benefactor has donated a one of a kind concert grand piano which is being specially made for the Opus. ‘It has its own model name, the Phoenix Opus. It combines the case of a Blüthner from the 1920s – which has the best acoustics – and a state of the art sound board, which is light and more stable.’

With a purpose-built piano for this purpose-built space, anticipation is growing for the Opus. Articles on its founding have appeared in theatre industry magazine The Stage (‘I don’t know how they found us’ muses Piatti) and performers have been getting in touch in large numbers. The project seems well on its way: AsPiatti comments‘All we need now is an audience.’

The Opus opens in July, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists will be performed twice on 26^th August, Tenors Unlimited will perform on 8th December.

Book tickets and keep up to date with the programme at www.opustheatre.co.uk

“The first time I met Chris he came up to me and said he wanted to be a comedian. I’ve been incredibly supportive ever since” says Jake. Both Jake and Chris work in social care, and met five years ago working in a residential environment supporting young adults with autism. They’ve worked together ever since, and are now working for Home Works, a non-profit organisation providing care, support and housing services for vulnerable people in Sussex.

“It’s my ultimate dream to run a fringe” says Chris “the idea came to us two years ago as we were walking down George Street. I said ‘we should bring 100 comedians to the town’, 60 came down last year and we have 80 booked in for this year.”

“We looked at all comedy festivals. We wanted the passion from Edinburgh, and the colourful, street performance vibe from Brighton, and adapted it all to what would work in Hastings.”

The programme is a frenetic mix of venues and acts, “40 of the comics will be going on to the Edinburgh Fringe,” Jake tells me “we have some really great names”. Kelly Convey, listed by both Metro and the Independent as one to watch in 2017 and Angelos Epithemiou, best known for his work on the BBC’s Shooting Stars to name but two. Chris is particularly excited to have Lillie Pierce in the programme; she’s a local comedian, starting out, who they met last year during the festival. “I really want more Hastings comics to come together, if you’re a comedian – or if you want to get into comedy, get in touch”.

Over five days, eight venues in Old Town will be hosting a range of acts. “It’s the comedy version of Sundance” Chris says, “go to a gig, walk a few doors down and see another and find yourself next to the act you just saw”. The closeness was something the comedians loved about the festival last year, they tell me “it made it easy to drop in and out of each other’s shows and it felt like a real community”.

New this year, a temporary stage in Butlers Gap will host a rolling programme to an audience in deckchairs. ‘There will be a show every hour throughout the five days – if a busker or a comedian wants to get up there are a few gaps’.

All shows are free except for the Friday Night Extravaganza at Black Market VIP, where proceeds will go to the charity, Stand up for Homelessness. As if full time jobs and running a fringe weren’t enough, Chris and Jake run a charity which is working towards buying a property where homeless people will be able to stay and be supported into more permanent housing.

Next year they hope to expand the festival still further. ‘We think this is the best small festival in the country. We want it to go on forever!’

Hastings Comedy Fringe, 14 -18 June at The Albion, Deep Blue @ Whistle Trago, Pump House, Anchor, Dragon Bar, Jenny Lind, VIP Black Market, Comedy Shack, all events free.

Friday Night Extravaganza, 16 June from 7pm, VIP Black Market, £11 in aid of Stand up for Homelessness.