Jack In The Green festival invites town to dress up and celebrate together online for the NHS

“We are very pleased to say that during these difficult times we are looking to bring the town online and together to celebrate our beloved festival, Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green”, announces organiser Keith Leech.

We are working with local community Facebook channel Isolation Station Hastings to run a series of events streamed live on our Facebook page and theirs, including a sunrise ceremony at dawn on 1 May and morris dancing, drumming and music on Saturday 2 May 2 with the main procession taking place on Sunday 3rd via Zoom and Facebook.

Dress up in green, decorate your homes and join us on Zoom!

For the main event on Sunday we are asking the whole town to get dressed up in green as they normally would and join us online on Zoom. Here we will all be able to celebrate together watching footage of previous years’ processions as well as live performances from across Hastings, including morris dancing, drum performances, a ceilidh, live music, the slaying of the Jack and all of the wonderful people and characters that make this event what it is.

The exciting part is we will be able to see everyone dressed up and enjoying the virtual festival from their homes.

May Day ‘Bang Your Drum For The NHS’ at 3.30pm on Sunday 3 May

We will end the proceedings at 3.30pm by inviting the whole town to go to their doorsteps, windows and balconies and bang their drums in a special Hastings May Day applause for the NHS, before we conduct the famous ceremonial slaying of the Jack.

Raising money for our NHS

It’s no small undertaking – we estimate there will be over one hundred people working and performing at this event, which will include as much of the actual schedule as is technologically possible.

We are a charity ourselves and are of course losing money this year, but we hope everyone will come together and we are inviting those who can to donate to two local charities providing PPE and other support for our NHS: ‘Hastings Supports Our NHS Staff’ and ‘Friends of the Conquest Hospital’. Normally tens of thousands attend our event, so if everybody donated a small amount we could make a big difference.

You can donate here.

Show us your decorations this week on social media

All details will be announced on our social media pages this week, but in the meantime we are asking everybody to start preparing their decorations and costumes and post photos and videos with the hashtag #hastingsvirtualjack2020

There will be a few hundred places available for the Zoom Procession, but it will be simultaneously broadcast to our own Facebook page and Isolation Station’s, so nobody needs to miss out.

We believe this very special event belongs to our community, and we will work night and day to bring it online so that we can keep the spirit of Hastings alive during these difficult times.

– Keith Leech, Chair of Trustees, Traditional Jack in the Green

#hastingsvirtualjack2020

Facebook links:

Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green

Isolation Station Hastings

Tickets:

The online event is free to all. Friday and Saturdays events will broadcast live on Facebook.

To apply for spaces for Sunday’s Main Procession on Zoom, details will be announced on our website in the coming days.

Click here for a virtual poster.

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