The Dolomites.

Beatles Day back in the flesh this Sunday!

Hastings Beatles Day is back with us on Sunday 3 April, when the spaces of the White Rock Theatre will once more resound to the songs of the Fab Four. There will be new features including a music-making session for youngsters, and the takings will go to support local charity Sara Lee Trust. Nick Terdre reports, all photos by Tony Ham from Beatles Day 2019.

Hastings Beatles Day returns with a live show on Sunday 3 April – the first in three years, thanks of course to the Covid pandemic. There will be the usual multiplicity of acts – more than 70 – spread across three stages in the White Rock Theatre – the main auditorium, the Sussex Studio downstairs and the acoustic stage in the upstairs bar.

Since the inaugural performance in 2000, the show has gone from strength to strength – since the 2019 event founder Pete Prescott passed on the organiser’s baton. The show is a veritable magnet for performers, with musicians and dancers coming from near and far, professional and amateur, to make this a hotspot of enjoyment in the Hastings cultural calendar.

Claire Hamill – making a welcome return on Sunday.

Regulars

The usual suspects will be turning out in force on Sunday, regulars including Carol Prior, Claire Hamill, Mike Hatchard, the Rockitmen, Rufus Stone, Hastings Old Town Ukelele Group, Now & Then, Hastings Stage Studio School of Performing Arts, Dr Savage, Rick Pentecost, the Autistix, and many more. Prescott himself will team up for a set with Roger Flack, Roger Carey and Den Wootten.

There are also less familiar names (to this writer, at least!):  the RedCatz, the Koan Brothers, GP, Key Change, Stiv Rippengal, the Kukes – the list goes on. Everyone will offer their own favourites in their own style.

And with an eye on the future of the show, for the first time there will  a music-making session for Little Beatles between 2 and 5pm when younger fans can learn how to perform a song with different instruments and sounds with the aid of performing musicians.

Chantelle Duncan.

The beneficiary of the show will be local charity Sara Lee Trust, which supports people in Hastings and Rother who have been diagnosed with cancer or another life-threatening illness by providing free counselling and therapy care.

In its first 20 years Beatles Day raised just over £300,000 for MacMillan Cancer Support, and it is to be hoped that even though Covid is still with us, it will prove as big a draw as ever on Sunday.

Beatles Day 2022 White Rock Theatre, Sunday 3 April, 12-10.30pm. Admission £17, 11-16s £8, under 11s free, family ticket £39. Tickets available in advance from theatre box office (01424 462288) or online, or on the door from 11am.

The 6Ts.

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