This weekend: St Leonards’ very own festival!

Make a diary date for the coming Friday and Saturday because there will be entertainment and fun things to do all around central St Leonards – it’s time for St Leonards Festival! Nick Terdre provides a taster of what’s on.

This year’s festival takes place on the evening of Friday 30 June and all day Saturday 1 July, with an electric line-up of not-to-be-missed acts and entertainment! For the second year running it is brought to you by Hastings Borough Council along with London-based creatives, 111 Collectif. This year it is backed by funding from Arts Council England.

The theme is Invention/RE-Invention, celebrating St Leonards’ unique assets, as well as local businesses, schools, community groups and artists. The festival is set to be the most innovative and exciting yet, say the organisers, with art at the heart and local talent in abundance.

If 2016 provided a catalyst for embedding accessible art in non-art spaces, this year continues with an even more diverse programme that offers something for all interests. Among the highlights are:

The Vegetable Nannies Wheeling an ancient Victoria pram laden with a prized collection of ‘Vegetable Babies’, the Nannies lovingly ask you to befriend, pet and feed their allotment cherubs! Brought to you by the wonderfully quirky, Plunge Bloom, expect to meet Magnus the downhill-skiing watermelon as well as Jessica the award-winning sweet potato queen. Suitable for children and adults alike, these ‘babies’ are guaranteed to put a smile on your face

The Inventor’s Handbook A major participatory arts project for young people, distributing hundreds of blank sketchbooks to schools and young people, gathering and exhibiting responses in a library of ideas, inventions and art books, ending in a not-to-be-missed exhibition at the Lucy Bell Gallery

The Aunties are back to re-think ‘Wellbeing’, providing uplifting, feel-good comical interaction, kindness and lots of biscuits at Siren on Norman Road

In Our Hands will use award-winning puppetry crafted from recycled materials at Kino-Teatr

Head First Acrobats join us all the way from Australia to showcase their unique blend of virtuoso acrobatics

Pickled Image return with their delightful granny as well as the Big Bad Wolf

St Leonards’ Dog Show Back due to high popular demand, with the winning dogs being offered the chance to be part of the…

Festival Parade Starting from the pier this will be led by Mayor Judy Rogers

The Kings Road Market The organisers have partnered with Sussex Concepts to bring you a bigger than ever market, featuring a community stage boasting local musical talent throughout the day on Saturday, as well as the usual wondrous mix of food, clothing and gifts

Music There’s tons of it, ranging from the Hastings Ukelele Band on the sea front to It Ain’t Necessarily So, Gershwin classics and his jazz opera Blue Monday at St John’s the Evangelist church on Pevensey Road, and lots more in-between in bars and restaurants.

Altogether there are seven events on Friday, starting at 5.30pm, and 26 on Saturday, from 10am through to late afternoon.

Will it rain on our parade? We hope not, but there’s plenty happening indoors, so we can truly say the festival is weather-proof. Most of the events are free, but some are charged for.

Full information on events, venues and schedules can be found on the festival website, together with suggested itineraries for those with little kids and older kids.

Keep up to date also on the Facebook page, Twitter (@stleonardsfest) and Instagram (@stleonardsfest).

 

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