We are pleased to announce that Coastal Currents Arts Festival has been successful yet again with their Arts Council England funding, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief and start blocking out September in our diaries to ready ourselves for yet another selection of incredible performances, exhibitions, events and surprising pop-ups!

As director of Coastal Currents and Sweet and Dandy Ltd, I will continue to push the envelope with both unusual new commissions and pieces that look to transform the spaces around us; continually looking to keep this much loved festival currently in its 20th year, fresh, bold, brave and relevant as well as unique to 1066.

Based in Hastings and St Leonards but stretching out to Battle, Rye, Bexhill and the rest of 1066, the impact of this month of cultural offerings is becoming even more visible. With Bottle Alley’s Wavelength project last year and Isaac Cordal’s little men of Rock a Nore still peeking out of locations in the Old Town, the festival looks to future legacy and more permanent pieces that get absorbed into the landscape of the town. On that note we are still on the hunt for freehold building owners with available walls for a mural – please do get in touch!

Curators and artists chosen for 2018 include Becky Beasley, Emily Peasgood, Becky McCray, Chiara Ambrosia, HOME LIVE ART, Fuel, Marlborough Theatre, Screen South, ZEROH, and Greig Burgoyne. The festival makes a bold statement with an opening piece by Morag Myerscough, an octagonal bandstand which will descend on the Stade Open Space from the 1st. Don’t forget the Opening Party on the 31st August and the Open Studio trails which happen on the first two weekends (1st/2nd and 8th/9th). There will also be a Coastal Currents Pecha Kucha special on the 6th September at the De La Warr Pavilion. So you might as well just take September off, invite all your friends to visit and take it all in.

The festival runs from the 1st September to the 30th September 2018 and the brochure will be available from mid July.

• Find out more about the festival as it unfolds at coastalcurrents.org.uk or on Instagram
@coastalcurrentsfestival or on Facebook 

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