We Are A Sea festival comes to Hastings on the weekend of the 28–29 September.

Together we make waves

We Are A Sea is a new headline for Hastings and a fun weekend of free activities over Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 September which highlights the local heroes who help keep our sea and shoreline clean, safe, and welcoming. Erica Smith catches up with Beccy Mccray – the artist and creator behind an event with community at its heart.

By the people, for the people, We Are A Sea launches with a curated weekend of fun activities celebrating the local heroes who help keep our seas and shoreline clean, safe, and welcoming. It takes place in action hubs located along the seafront and the entire, decentralised festival is free for all to enjoy.

Beccy Mccray is an artist-activist, creative director/producer and impact strategist who has lived in St Leonards since 2010. Beccy tells climate and nature stories to audiences in creative and impactful ways, playfully breaking down boundaries between art, activism and everyday life.

People, place and participation lie at the heart of her socially engaged approach, allowing Beccy to act as both curator and collaborator. Her partners include grassroots community groups from Youth Strike for Climate to comunidades in Brazil, alongside science experts, mystics and world-leading cultural institutions.

“What is ‘the natural world’, when over half of our own body is H2O? How can we be separate from nature if we are nature? Every second breath we take, anywhere in the world, is oxygen that comes from phytoplankton – tiny microscopic plants drifting in the ocean. 50-85% of the oxygen we breathe is created by these tiny creatures.

As the Maori people say, ‘I am the river, the river is me’. We are an ecosystem within a much, much larger system where ‘me’ really means ‘we’. We are a sea.

WE ARE A SEA reflects a growing ocean of change, a movement we are part of in Hastings which breaks down the harmful narrative of separation from each other and the natural world, and instead brings to life stories of interdependence, community, and possibility.

WE ARE A SEA makes visible the positive futures that are growing all around us – through ordinary people doing things that change our world for the better. But this isn’t the story we usually hear. Hope is in the shadows while doom is in the mainstream. We know we must not shy away from or whitewash the horrors of the present or the past, but we must interweave other stories to seed new narratives of possibility.

This is also a moment in which we must call upon new leaders to be radical and courageous in doing their part to help build the futures we long for. We’re doing it anyway – but they can, and must help too.”

Beccy Mccray, We Are A Sea Creator

Here in the historic town of Hastings the sea is deeply embedded into our daily emotions, cultural heritage and tied intrinsically to our wellbeing. And yet, our little patch of ocean suffers from geopolitical bigotry, plastic pollution, degradation of biodiversity, coastal erosion – and yes, sewage.

We may not be receiving much help from the government or the water companies, but at grassroots level there are hundreds of heroes already working hard to help keep our sea and shoreline clean, healthy, safe and welcoming…

Councillor Becca Horn will appear as her alter ego of Climate Nan

We Are A Sea brings diverse groups and individuals together under a new headline for Hastings; one which unites our community, is more inclusive and relevant than anything 1066-related, and one which reflects the huge amounts of hope bubbling away within our town. Instead of looking back 1,000 years, We Are A Sea invites us to look forward. Like the sea, we are more than the sum of our parts: a powerful force of hope and possibility.

We Are A Sea celebrates these local heroes through a curated weekend of joyful, community happenings, from swimming, storytelling, workshops and beach cleans, to screenings, printmaking, bike rides, boating and more.

By the people, for the people, We Are A Sea is a decentralised festival, taking place in ‘action hubs’ located along the seafront. Programmed in partnership with the community, it creates critical connections between the varied folk working to better our oceans and beaches, whilst bridging social and cultural divides. Through sharing our relationships with the ocean, We Are A Sea is a symbol of solidarity, cooperation and resistance. Sometimes the ripples may feel small – but together we make waves.

Shuttle buses
Designed to be inclusive, the entire programme will be free for all, with complimentary shuttle buses and lunches for communities in Hollington and Ore who might have access issues (please get in touch to book a space).

We Are A Sea is an idea which belongs to us all. After the event the brand assets will be open-sourced, released into the wild, a gift to the people of this town and all our other Hastings heroes!

Surf to www.weareasea.net for the full programme.

We Are the Sea has been made possible thanks to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Also in: Green Times