Archives for Spotlight
Dawn Walk for Samaritans
JAN TOMALINDirector of Hastings and Rother Samaritans Following the success of last year’s inaugural Dawn Walk, Hastings and Rother Samaritans is delighted to be doing it again this October –…
Moonlight Walk – Get One Place Free
St Michael’s Hospice is encouraging people to gather their friends and family and sign up for the Moonlight Walk this September with a special 4 for 3 ticket offer, available…
B&T Music
JUDE MONTAGUE Gazing longingly into the window of B&T Music at seductive guitars, cymbals, pedals… is part of Hastings life for budding musicians. So it was a blow to our…
Architecture, Culture, and Community
Being Modern: Bexhill is a day-long event educating participants and celebrating the story of the Grade 1 listed De La Warr Pavilion, from its bold modernist beginnings through to its…
Hidden History in Heritage Open Days
Over 20 local venues will be opening their doors for free events during Hastings Heritage Open Days this year. Residents and visitors will be able to explore stories of the…
Ronnie Scott’s Story comes to Hastings
Direct from London’s world-famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars – led by the club’s artistic director - take audiences behind the scenes of one of the …
Explore The Arch Latest Project
GAIL BORROW In the latest exploration of trailblazing women who travelled great journeys around 1000 years ago, Explore The Arch Theatre explores Agatha of Hungary at Pevensey Castle. Early-career team…
Mettle: Arts, Domesticity, and the Rise of the One-Man Show
VICTORIA KINGHAM It’s well known around these parts that some of the finest artists, musicians, and creatives of all kinds make their home in the area. It also seems unusual…
Twins, Cancer, and Comedy
People are often quite curious about what it’s like to be an identical twin. Local sisters Anna and Georgina Lewis have been asked this question many, many times, and decided…
XMTR AudioArts Festival
JUDE MONTAGUE Sound tells stories. Lucia Scazzochio from Social Broadcasts (Resonance FM) has settled in St Leonards-on-Sea and set up an international festival, XMTR – a standard tech abbreviation for a radio…
Project Art Works Exhibition
studio INstall: Luke Bebb is open until the end of this week at the Project Art Works gallery. The space recreates the Project Art Works studio in Braybrooke Terrace where…
Mobile Upgradeand TV Interference in St Leonards
Mobile network services are currently being upgraded in St Leonards to boost speed, performance and coverage – but there is a chance these improvements may cause interference to TV received through an…
Hiroshima Day 2026
JOHN ENEFER On 6 August, the annual Hiroshima Day commemoration will take place in Alexandra Park, Hastings, as local people remember those who died from the first use of nuclear…
Activities for Young and Old
Active Hastings have a bumper calendar of low-cost or free sport sessions running throughout the town for young people this summer. Activities include: Ultimate Frisbee, Street Sport Roadshow, gym and circuit sessions,…
Trunks & Hunks in Hastings
MEL STEEL Cold-water men’s swimming group Trunks and Hunks will be taking their first Hastings dip this Sunday 2 August, meeting at 7am on Rock‑ A‑Nore beach. Trunks and Hunks…
Bexhill Art Weekender
A special weekend returns for 2026: a Town-Wide Celebration of Art, Performance, Film and Community Bexhill Art Weekender returns on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August 2026, featuring artists’ open…
Not Lost but Gone Before
KENT BARKER There is endless fascination in using real historical figures as the inspiration for works of fiction. Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell and Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet are just two distinguished…
Singing in the Rubble
FELICITY LAURENCE As a music educator, I have been honoured to help a little from afar in the current work of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM), which…
Art and Craft in Priory Meadow
A new initiative, Mosaic Malarky, is expanding access to arts and community creativity in Hastings, bringing local people together through hands-on workshops, inclusive making sessions and event-led activities at Hypha…
Wertico One-off at Jazz Hastings
VICTORIA KINGHAM Soft-spoken and unassuming, Paul Wertico becomes, behind his kit, a force to reckon with. You can hear why he remained for many years the lynchpin of the Pat…
Classical Music this weekend
Mozart and Chausson at Christ Church St Leonards Max Baillie’s St Leonards Concerts series hosts this weekend The Kleio Quartet, rising stars in the music world here and abroad. Since their formation in…
BLAST Reopens as The Thonett Gallery
The art gallery run by Markus and Tessa Thonett, hitherto called ‘BLAST’ has now changed its name to the more literally descriptive Thonett Gallery, which they feel is more representative…
St Leonards Festival Returns
TOBY BULA-EDGE Warrior Square Gardens will come alive on 11 July from with the annual St Leonards Festival and Community Parade along the seafront at It promises to be an energetic and…
Old Town Boating Lake Makeover
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN The Old Town Boating Lake has been a popular feature of Hastings seafront for almost a hundred years. Opened in 1933 to plans drawn up by Borough Engineer…
Life, Love, Lyrics
JUDE MONTAGUE talks to fellow-songwriter Anna Page Some artists have a powerful and positive impact on Hastings culture even though the spotlight has not fallen on their profile. One of…
Project Art Works Returns to Comic Con
Comic Con is returning to Hastings, and this year you will also meet there Daniel Wells, Ellen Prebble, and Lucy Walker. Daniel and Lucy will be presenting works in progress…
Year of the Normans
FIONA MCGARRY To commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, there will be events across Hastings and the rest of the country from this summer into…
Refugee Week Food Festival: Couragein Practice
A key aspect of this year’s Refugee Week programme is the Food Festival. Between 13 and 21 June, local restaurants, cafés and safe havens across Hastings and surrounding areas are…
Walking on Water: A Celebration of Water, Wildlife and Community
FIONA MCGARRY Walking on Water is a community celebration and guided waterways tour involving various local groups such as the Care for Creation, Clean Water Action (CWAG), Standing Up 4…
Refugee Week Celebrates Courage Across Hastings & Bexhill
Refugee Week 2026 takes place from 15 to 21 June, bringing communities together across Hastings, Rother, and Wealden under this year’s national theme: Courage Refugee Week 2026 will spotlight the…
An Exhilarated Octogenarian
Lindsay Jayne on life, survival, and bad grammar FIONA POWERS Lindsay Jayne is exhilarated by the knowledge that, as a newbie octogenarian (“How did that happen so quickly?!”), she has…
Get it Together & Dance
For the end of May Bank holiday, the world of dance music is showcased and brought across the town by Let’s Get It Together Festival, featuring 30 DJs playing across…
The Phoenix of Gaza
A remarkable film, the winner of numerous awards at film festivals, including the London Independent Film Awards and the Edinburgh Film Awards, will soon be screened in Hastings. 'The Phoenix…
Hastings, Take the Mic!
SARAH MILNE A fresh burst of comic energy is heading for Hastings as Laugh-Able Comedy Cavalcade: Hastings Edition rolls into town. This taster workshop will offer an exciting introduction to…
Guided Walk to the Amsterdam
For over two hundred years, during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, much of the world’s international trade was carried out by great sailing vessels, known as East Indiamen. These…
The Hastings Project Opens Up
HARRY HAWKINS On a balmy (well, balmy for March) afternoon, a new watering hole for St Leonards opened its doors for the first time. It’s 5pm and the pub is full (I’m…
Foxtrot Echo: ComfortablyOut of Stepwith the World
NICK TUCKER Less than three minutes into my interview with the roguish, counter-culture iconoclast, Foxtrot Echo, I realise that the word ‘interview’ isn’t going to contain what is clearly going…
The Night Swimmer novel on Hastings: the poetry of the tide
JOSHUA GEER In The Night Swimmer, Simon J Houlton casts his debut novel into the restless dark and grit of the Hastings coastline, a place he knows not simply as…
Celebrate Heritage at the Edith Festival
HANNAH-LOUISE SAMPSON The Edith Festival, a vibrant highlight of this year’s Hastings Week, promises an evening where ancient legend meets modern fun with a generous dash of Anglo-Saxon spirit. Organised…
Guitar Virtuoso Enchants at the Kino-Teatr
SUSAN DEMUTH The Kino-Teatr’s popular Coffee Concert series served up a special treat for local music lovers when classical guitar virtuoso Eleanor Kelly took to the stage. Eleanor Kelly at…