Celebrating St Leonards with colourful festival

The diverse programme brought the town alive with pop-up performances, art and crafts, music, games and more.

The summer festival was staged by Hastings Borough Council, along with 111 Collectiff, a group of London-based creatives, for the second year running.

The theme ‘Invention/RE-Invention’ proved to be hugely popular, seeing an ‘inventive’ mix of artists, performers and participants, with local talent in abundance.

Highlights included, the Grand Parade led by Hastings Mayor, Judy Rogers, along with ‘The Aunties’, Bernadette Russell and Jules Craig, who also went down a storm later in the day at their ‘Wellbeing Clinic’, Siren and Norman Rd, providing uplifting, feel-good comical interaction, kindness and lots of biscuits.

Kings Road market (in partnership with Sussex Concepts) was bigger and better than ever, bustling with music, food, gifts and general cheer.

The Beach Zone pulled in large crowds, featuring music throughout the day, games for children and the show stopping Giant Balloon Man – Dizzy O’Dare.

St Leonards Dog Show, which featured Home Secretary and Hastings MP amongst it’s judges, was even more popular than last year, seeing winning dogs featured in the Grand Parade.

The Vegetable Nannies and Plunge Bloom, took over town with their ancient Victorian pram of ‘Vegetable Babies’.

The Inventor’s Handbook by Lucy Bell Gallery was a major participatory arts project for young people working with local schools and presented an impressive collection of inventive models and sketchbooks.

In Our Hands, award winning puppetry crafted from recycled materials, was jam packed at Kino Teatr. HeadFirst Acrobats, all the way from Australia, amazed crowds with their unique blend of virtuoso acrobatics and Pickled Image, back by popular demand, did not disappoint with their delightful Granny and Big Bad Wolf.

Music, art and poetry events across both nights also pulled in impressive audiences in local cafes and bars including, Fika@44, Nico’s, The Book-keeper and The Nag’s Head.

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