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Eugenio Catone, Front Row Fashion and Billy Childish: all on offer in the area on Saturday 17 November

Eugenio Catone, Front Row Fashion and Billy Childish: all on offer in the area on Saturday 17 November

Spoiled for choice!

For a small town, Hastings certainly punches above its weight for entertainment. Take this Saturday for example… our What’s On guide has 18 events listed, and they cover everything from high fashion to The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, from old punk Billy Childish telling stories to an international piano concerto and Haydn’s Creation.

The Front Row fashion show, now in its fifth year has moved out of Hastings to the De La Warr Pavilion because it couldn’t find a venue big enough to accommodate its rapidly multiplying fashionista audience. Back in town, there’s two top notch classical concerts vying for ticket sales. Eugenio Catone, this year’s winner of Hastings International Piano Concerto competition is playing in the sleek modernism of the Jerwood Gallery, whilst Hastings Philharmonic Choir are performing Haydn’s The Creation in St Leonards’ beautiful Christ Church under the direction of their new conductor Marcio da Silva.

And that doesn’t even touch all the bands playing in pubs, the Love in Space dance night at The Roomz, the White Rock Theatre’s celebration of dance, plus films-a-plenty at the Odeon and Electric Palace.

With such an abundance of events on offer, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to Hastings Online Times’ Listings Editor Christopher Cormack to see if he knew why such a small town has so much on offer.

Q: What made you want to become a listings editor?
I only recently came back on the singles scene and rekindled a desire to get out and about around town. It soon became clear that there were so many options that it would be easy to miss some of the best. The Ultimate Alternative was good at listing pub entertainment, but I felt Hastings had a much wider range of offerings and nowhere was everything listed together in one place. I still get a kick to discover something new that I never imagined took place in Hastings.

Q: How long have you been compiling events for HOT, and have you noticed an increase in events over that period of time?
I only started properly last January, but for some time before I had made mental notes of events in Hastings. 2012 has been an exceptional year for Hastings with the opening of the Jerwood Gallery and developments at the Stade open space and Stade Hall, not to mention Jubilee and Olympic fever. I admire the ingenuity of Hastings people to find another excuse to dress up and party and was tickled by our Hastings Zombie walk coverage. I keep wondering if there is an upper limit to the number of events that will still find an audience. We don’t seem to have reached it yet. With the Summer season well in the past, you would think things would be slowing down for Winter, but no;  we have had the Ingrid Pitt vampires, the Black Huts Festival and now the Storytelling Festival – a definite increase in off-season events which bodes very well for the future wellbeing of Hastings’ nighttime and tourist economy.

Q: How do you find out about all the events on offer?
You are now asking for some trade secrets! It was clear that I needed to be proactive and go out and scout for information. It would never do to wait for the people to come and tell me.  I live in the old town down the road from the noticeboard that attracted me in the first place to the mutiplicity of events taking place in Hastings. Also I am building an increasing list of venues, local performers and event organisers who often run websites that provide the information I need. Furthermore the Hastings Creatives Yahoo! group is an excellent source to feel the pulse of creativity in the town. But in the end I am always grateful to receive advice from anyone organising events so that I can list their events, and the more HOT gets established as the place to find out what’s on in Hastings, the more I expect people will pass on the information to me as a matter of course.

Q: And what will be your choice to attend this Saturday night?
Well, I hoped you might ask that question. This Saturday I shall be singing heartily as a tenor in the Hastings Philharmonic Choir as we perform Haydn’s Creation at Christ Church St Leonards. The choir has quietly been making step changes to its singing to increasing acclaim under the able direction previously of Hilary Davan Wetton and now with the exciting new talent of the young handsome Brazilian, Marcio da Silva.

Singing in a choir is the cure for a host of physical, mental and emotional malaises and I recommend joining a choir to anyone who is at all down in the dumps. I took it up after my wife died and have not looked back since!

If YOU are promoting an event that you would like listed in the HOT events guide, just email: listings@hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk
And if you just want to see the array of events that are on in this talented town, visit the HOT What’s On  Guide!

If you’re enjoying HOT and would like us to continue providing fair and balanced reporting on local matters please consider making a donation. Click here to open our PayPal donation link. Thank you for your continued support!

Posted 10:36 Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012 In: Performance

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