Old Town Celebrations
Old Town week gets going in the first week of August and is officially opened with the raising of the flag at the flagpole next to The Shipwreck Museum.
Set up in 1968 because the Hastings Carnival didn’t include the Old Town in its procession, it’s a week of Open Houses, walking tours, art shows and live Music.
One of its quirkier events is The Crown Lane Bike Race, in which contestants ride a butcher’s bike up the steepest hill in the Old Town with a £10 note tucked under the saddle.
The origins of the race go back to Hastings’ fisherman and ‘boy ashore’ Jimmy Read. Jimmy was urged to get a motorbike, but refused, saying he could travel everywhere he needed to on his old butcher’s bike. He was challenged by a friend to ride up Crown Lane (probably the steepest hill in the Old Town) while staying on the saddle and with a £10 note under him. Jimmy managed to do so and won the money.
Sadly, Jimmy died on the beach during the 1987 hurricane, and the next year, his friend, Peter Trickett, came up with the idea of a memorial bike race. 30 years later, the race is still going strong!
Contestants have to repeat Jimmy’s feat of riding a butcher’s bike up Crown Lane with a £10 note tucked under the saddle. If they stand up and lose the note, they’re out of the game.
There’s also plenty of music in Old Town Week, kicking off with the RNLI concert this Thursday (1 August) and followed by a reggae concert on Friday and the Nearly On The Beach Concert over the weekend, all at The Stade. For more live music, catch the Rockitmen on street stage outside the FILO on 8 August.
Other interesting (and sometimes arcane) activities during the week include: the gurning competition, a church service for pets, the seaboot race, a donut eating competition and the ancient game of winkle tossing. One of the most popular and hilarious evenings is The Pram Race, where teams choose a theme and decorate their ‘prams’ before racing through the Old Town (basically a big pub crawl) – although the organisers warn that this is strictly for over-18s.
Finally, The Old Town Carnival rounds off Old Town Week on Saturday 10 August. The procession includes floats, dancers, majorettes and marching bands and ends with a magnificent firework display in the evening.
See oldtowncarnivalweek.co.uk/events/list for more information and a full list of events.
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. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply