Coastal Currents '09 launches with Random Friday rooftop party

The event coincides with the latest in the Pavilion's Random Friday series.

Observer critic and author Kathryn Flett, star of BBC's Grumpy Old Women series, officially opens the festival at a drinks reception in Hastings Town Hall.

After Disco Olympics led by performance duo Tit-Tat, who use interactive events such as disco ball shot put and the martini relay to connect with an audience alienated by rigid artworld rules, the evening moves to Bexhill.

Free buses leave at 7pm from outside Hastings Town Hall to the Pavilion, where the night continues with Random Fridays and a rooftop party.

That evening, Random Fridays host Tentation. Six tents gradually come to life; stir and scuttle. The performance morphs tents into breathing creatures that conquer and consume, accompanied by a mysterious soundtrack.

Riz MC is joined by live mix artist Evil Ed, and a short film by Michele D'Acosta will show an illegal hip-hop party that takes place on a hijacked New York subway train.

Coastal Currents arts festival is based mainly in Hastings, Bexhill and Rye, and runs from next Friday's launch until September 30.

This year's festival focuses on contemporary visual arts with the theme 'Hidden Hastings', revealing new and exciting work by local artists in unusual locations all over the area.

There are a wide range of events and activities to appeal to all, including exhibitions, film screenings, open-air theatre productions, art trails, live music, storytelling and spoken word evenings, an art car boot sale and book art bibliotherapy are listed on the festival website and many are free to attend.

Two names Bexhill should particularly watch out for are Louise Kenward and Hannah Rollings.

For the duration of the festival, Louise, a Bexhill artist, will make subtle shifts to the seafront shelters between Bexhill and Hastings.

Changes to the shelters, transient spaces for thinking, shelter and watching, aim to explore their purpose, and will change in response to Bexhill people's manipulation of the objects they find.

On September 7, Hannah, a Bexhill illustrator, leads a free book-making workshop in Bexhill Library. By recycling older books Hannah plays with the associations that books have, and their stereotypical readership.

The workshops are for all adults who are interested, and twin with the launch of Hannah's new book, Utterly Mindless Thrills; A peep show into the romance novel, which reveals the hidden sleaze within romance novels often seen grasped in an old lady's hand.

For more information on the festival and the events please visit www.coastalcurrents.org.uk

More on Random Fridays can be found at www.dlwp.com