Mouth-watering menu at seafood and wine festival

Lots of good food and drink, music, entertainment and educational opportunities await at this weekend’s Hastings Seafood and Wine Festival.

Having had to set up shop on what seemed like a building site last year, the festival is now properly housed on the Stade open space. Here there will be more than 40 stalls, plus the wine marquee, according to festival organiser Jane Kilby, with all sorts of tasty culinary offerings and beverages.

The festival is a celebration of the richness of the fare provided by the local fishing industry, despite the many handicaps under which it operates, the chefs and restaurants which prepare and serve it up, and the locally produced wines with which to wash it down.

The educational side, an integral part of the Stade development project, finds expression in the Classroom on the Coast, a series of talks, demonstrations and discussions in Stade Hall organised by Hastings Fisheries Local Action Group and Hastings Fishermen’s Protection Society.

Here, for example, you can accompany Paul Webbe, local seafood chef and restaurateur, as he goes through the day’s catch, and find out how to fillet fish from experts connected to Billingsgate fish market in London.

Jane also draws attention to Greenpeace’s first appearance at the festival, where representatives will talk about their work with small boat fishermen to get a fair quota and a fair catch.

Because of limited space, the events in Stade Hall will be ticketed, with a small charge to defray costs and pay the fishermen for their catch.

Varied music menu

The entertainment marquee, located at the side of the lifeboat station, is the place for music, with a diverse line-up of bands offering a varied fare including blues, soul and rock, and the highlight of a jazz breakfast on Sunday morning with locally grown talent Liane Carroll.

In the open air there will be street theatre, sword-dancing and a trio of wandering cavemen known as the Three Ugs. The fire brigade will be present to demonstrate how to deal with cooker emergencies.

Now in its seventh year, the Seafood and Wine Festival has become a big draw, attracting up to 50,000 visitors from near and far, including across the channel, Jane says. Numbers were somewhat down at last year’s rain-affected event, but with a reasonable weather forecast for the weekend – dry throughout, with sunny intervals – hopes are high for another great turnout.

More information on Hastings Seafood and Wine Festival is available here.

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