Hailsham Festival

03/08/2024

🐴**NEW AT THE NOSTALGIA FAIR FOR 2024** 🐴

This year we are delighted to welcome the involvement of who will be providing Horse & Carriage Rides around the town during the Nostalgia Fair (Hailsham Cattle Market) on the 21st September. Rides will be taking place between 11.15am - 4.00pm

Book now for the whole family!
Early booking recommended to avoid disappointment.
Click the link here or at the link in our bio:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/hailsham-festival

01/08/2024

🫶Introducing our fabulous committee!👏

Over the last 18 years, our Arts Festival has continued to showcase the very best that Hailsham has to offer in our little corner of East Sussex and over the years our committee are the ones bringing it to life over the year. For the 2024 Festival, it’s this lovely bunch who have been working hard behind the scenes to plan, coordinate, organise and promote all the fantastic events and acts that make our Festival (and Hailsham) shine.

From L-R we have:
Paul Young who leads on children’s art
Deputy Chair Mel Martin
Floss Nicholls from the along with Denise Bliss (4th from the right)
Doug Morgan who leads on theatre acts
Sharon Davis in charge of press relations and radio
Chairman Tony Biggin
Pam Robinson who leads the Creative Writing Competition and Nostalgia Fair
3rd - 5th from right is Tracy Mullery, along with Gerry Constable and Tamsin Webb, Treasurer.
Not pictured are Steve Scott- Artistic Director, Julie Coates, Karen Nicholls and Kaylee Butcher.

Each and everyone of our committee members wear multiple hats and their contributions are wide reaching and too many to mention here. Without each and everyone of our committee members, volunteers and venues, it would be impossible to run and showcase such a range of eclectic arts. So a big thank you to our Committee and wider Hailsham Festival Team.

31/07/2024

Have you uploaded your creative writing entries yet?

There’s only 10 days to go before the closing deadline of our Creative Writing Competition. Scroll through the pics for further info on how to enter before the 9th Aug closing date!

All submissions will be published in the Hailsham Festival Anthology - a great achievement and keepsake for budding writers and creative imaginations.
Winners will receive the Pam Turner Cup!

This year we invite submission on any of the following:
​
Poem (Age 5 – 10) “My Pet “ (No more than 30 lines)
Poem (Age 11 – 18) “Animal” ( No more than 30 lines)
Poem Adult – “Moon” (No more than 30 lines)
Short Story (Age 5 – 10) “On the Beach” (No more than 200 words)
Short Story (Age 11 – 18) “A Funny Thing Happened” (No more than 500 words)
Short Story Adult “The Dinner Party” (No more than 500 words)

**DEADLINE FOR ALL ENTRIES IS 9TH AUGUST**

Don't forget to share with any friends or families who might also be interested!

27/07/2024

This year, our range of music acts hits all the right notes - from pop to indie-rock, choral, classical and folk... there's something for everyone and these two performances will bring delight in equal measure.

🎤Your stories in song with local folk duo Milton Hide 📖

Free event - 11th September - Grovelands School
Join musical duo Milton Hide for an evening of original song with help from the children of Grovelands School. Alongside, there will be an exhibition of local history and a chance to share your own stories.

For further information visit: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/your-stories-in-song/ or click the link in our bio

🎹Music Box Wealden Carnaval - illustrated piano recital with William Hancox 🎶
13th September 7.30pm - 10pm Hailsham Pavilion. Tickets £12pp

This recital focuses on Schumann’s riotously imaginative Carnaval, illustrated on the big screen. Other piano favourites include Beethoven’s famous Moonlight Sonata and Bach’s Italian Concerto.

For further information and to book tickets visit:
https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/music-box-wealden-carnaval/ or click the link in our bio.

26/07/2024

Delighted to add this fantastic show to our line-up for this year's Festival. Performance - 7th September at Hailsham Pavilion - Cinema and Theatre.
Find out more and book here:

https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/the-music-of-george-harrison-live/

It is now more than half a century since the release of George Harrison’s magnum opus, the triple album All Things Must Pass. To celebrate this enduring treasure of 20th century music, front man Alex Eberhard and guitarist Bernd Rest of the now legendary All Things Must Pass Orchestra (who have be...

25/07/2024

Love where you live!

📢Save these dates! 📢This September we’ll be celebrating the very best that our local market town has to offer with a number of fabulous family events taking place including:

🎇Animazing in Lights: Music & Light Show throughout St Mary's Walk - free entry. Over four nights on 10th, 14th, 19th & 21st September 7.00pm - 8.30pm

🎪Nostalgia Fair: 21st September 11.00am - 4.00pm at Hailsham Cattle Market. Free entry. A fun-filled day with live music, stalls, steam engine and cart & horse rides, vintage vehicle displays, fairground rides and more!

22/07/2024

17TH SEPTEMBER - TALK: THE BANOFFI PIE
The Laurel, 1 George Street, BN27 1AD, Ian Dowding, the chef synonymous with the Banoffi Pie, will talk about this and his other
adventures from 3pm onwards. Ian has worked in the restaurant business for over fifty years. After several jobs in small
restaurants, he moved to East Sussex to take up the position of head chef at a newly opened restaurant called The Hungry Monk. He remained there for twenty years, and during that time, a dessert was created which was christened Banoffi Pie by the proprietor
Nigel Mackenzie. It has since become known around the world.
Ian went on to open his own restaurant, Quincys, in 1988 in Seaford, and in 2000, he sold it, but continued his cooking career as a freelance chef and consultant. He also taught cookery evening classes at Sussex Downs College and worked on several TV programmes.
Tickets: £5 each. Only 28 are now available.
For further information about all the events planned by Hailsham Festival, visit www.hailshamfestival.co.uk or 07899 996192.

21/07/2024

As we head into the school holidays, the next couple of weeks is a great time for encouraging your little person or teenager to have a go at entering our Creative Writing competition.

Short stories & poetry are all accepted related to the following themes and all submissions will be published in our anthology - which is a great achievement for budding writers and creative imaginations.

All entries must be completely original and must not have been previously been submitted or published. No AI produced items will be accepted.
This year we invite submission on any of the following:
​
Poem (Age 5 – 10) “My Pet “ (No more than 30 lines)
Poem (Age 11 – 18) “Animal” ( No more than 30 lines)
Poem Adult – “Moon” (No more than 30 lines)
Short Story (Age 5 – 10) “On the Beach” (No more than 200 words)
Short Story (Age 11 – 18) “A Funny Thing Happened” (No more than 500 words)
Short Story Adult “The Dinner Party” (No more than 500 words)

DEADLINE FOR ALL ENTRIES IS 9TH AUGUST so plenty of time once the schools have broken up.

Submit entries here: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/creative-writing-competitons-2024/

And please share with any friends or families who might also be interested! The more the merrier :)

20/07/2024

Next weekend, our friends will be hosting their 3rd Summer Exhibition at Alfriston's Old Chapel Centre. There'll be plenty of talent and wonderful displays with a variety of fine art and artisan crafts for sale. The weekend's events will also include dancing and the Cuckmere Valley Horticulture Society Flower & Produce Show.

Save the date for 27th & 28th July -open 10am to 4pm

15/07/2024

DANCE LOVERS UNITE!

This year, we have a number of incredible dance acts that you won't want to miss!

Bookings are now open for the incredible showing of ‘Picasso; His Life & Loves’ at Hailsham Pavilion on 14th September. Flamenco Dance company Cancion Gitana have created a unique biography of the long and extraordinary life of this well-known Spanish artist.

💃For more information and to book your tickets visit: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/picasso/ or click the link in our bio.💃

BODIBLOSSOM BURLESQUE...

Grab your girlfriends, boyfriends, best friends, partners, work besties and book your tickets for a fantastic evening of BodiBlossom Burlesque at the White Hart Pub, Horsebridge on 12th September.

Tickets are £15 pp for a fabulous night- filled with tassels, tease, giveaways, glitz and glamour!

💋Advanced booking recommended - book your tickets here or at the link in the bio: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/hailsham-festival/an-evening-of-burlesque/e-jbvdmg

09/07/2024

📢There's just one month to go until the deadline for our Creative Writing Competition!📢

Enter yours or your little people's short stories and poetry submissions in the following categories by 9th August to be in with a chance of having your work published in our annual anthology, a monetary prize and the all-important Pam Turner Cup.

Poem (Age 5 – 10) “My Pet “ (No more than 30 lines)

Poem (Age 11 – 18) “Animal” ( No more than 30 lines)

Poem Adult – “Moon” (No more than 30 lines)

Short Story (Age 5 – 10) “On the Beach” (No more than 200 words)

Short Story (Age 11 – 18) “A Funny Thing Happened” (No more than 500 words)

Short Story Adult “The Dinner Party” (No more than 500 words)

For further information and to submit your entries click here or press the link in our bio:
https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/creative-writing-competitons-2024/

06/07/2024

If you love all things literature, we have a number of fantastic ways for you to indulge this September:

🖋Creative Writing Competition - entries open until 9th August 📓
Once again we invite children and adults to submit poems and short stories. All entries will be included in our annual Anthology (unless entrants opt out) and there are prizes for the winners.

More info here: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/creative-writing-competitons-2024/

🎤Downland Poets Open Mic Event🎤
Monday 9th September, 2.30pm- 4.30pm at Hailsham Parish Church Lounge

A free informal hour or so of "open mic" shared poetry - both profound and amusing. Come along to listen or share. Light refreshments available.

More info here: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/downland-poets/

👑The Madness of George III👑
Saturday 21st September & Sunday 22nd September
Hailsham Pavilion

Book your tickets for this sell-out production of Alan Bennett’s award-winning play, known to many as the 1994 film starring Nigel Hawthorne.

More info here: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/the-madness-of-george-iii/

04/07/2024

There's no doubt about it... has definitely arrived! But how's your September looking?

Get your calendar's out and start booking for some fantastic local arts events that are coming to Hailsham from the 7th September.

Browse the full programme at https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/whats-on/
Or click the link in our bio 🤩👆

01/07/2024

Great to support the Hailsham Bonfire Society HBS this weekend and thanks to all who came by to support the local community. We look forward to entertaining you all this September with our packed Arts programme!

Click the link in our bio to browse

A big thank you to our dedicated committee members for organising and manning the stand.

28/06/2024

Quiz teamers ready!

Grab your team and get ready to test your knowledge in the
Hailsham Community Land Trust Quiz held at the White Hart, Horsebridge on 13th September 7.30-10.00pm

History ☑️
Science ☑️
Pop culture ☑️
Literature ☑️

Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned expert, there’s something for everyone!

So sharpen your pencils, charge up your brain cells, and get ready to compete to be the quiz champion.

Tickets – £5 on the door.
Quizmaster: Neil Povey

20/06/2024

Hailsham is gearing up for a varied line-up of talented regional artists and a feast of music, dance, drama, literature and street entertainment as the town hosts the 𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘀 & 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 in September.

The festival, now entering its eighteenth successful year and one of the highlights of the town’s events calendar, will again be 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗹 and Mayor of Hailsham!

👉 DETAILS: https://www.hailsham-tc.gov.uk/news/wheels-in-motion-for-this-years-festival-of-arts-and-culture/ 👉 PROGRAMME: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/

15/06/2024

With Father's Day just around the corner, why not celebrate the father figure in your life and book a memorable experience at one of our upcoming Festival Shows - there’s plenty to choose from!

🔪🎭How about a MURDER MYSTERY SUPPER where Carry On meets Christie in this 1930's romp… A trio of professional actors play out a dastardly but hilarious case for you to solve. It’s up to you to find out ‘whodunnit’ and who knows – you might win a prize! Venue: King’s Head, Horsebridge on the 19th September.

Click here to book: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/murder-mystery-supper/

🎤🎬Or why not book tickets for the new feature length documentary showing of ‘BLUR: TO THE END’ at on 17th September - a fascinating, intimate watch for anyone who remembers the indie-pop days of the 1990s and is still a die-hard Blur fan.

Click here to book: https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/festival-film/

Share or tag your friends and family to make sure you don't miss out.

08/06/2024

CALLING ALL POETS, STORYTELLERS, BUDDING AUTHORS & THOSE WITH A LOVE FOR THE WRITTEN WORD. 🖋📕📃✏️
We want you!

Once again we invite children and adults to enter our creative writing competition and submit their poem and short story entries. All entries must be completely original and all entries will be have the opportunity to be published in our Festival Anthology (if you so wish).

This year we invite submissions for the following:

Poem (Age 5 – 10) “My Pet “ (No more than 30 lines)

Poem (Age 11 – 18) “Animal” ( No more than 30 lines)

Poem Adult – “Moon” (No more than 30 lines)

Short Story (Age 5 – 10) “On the Beach” (No more than 200 words)

Short Story (Age 11 – 18) “A Funny Thing Happened” (No more than 500 words)

Short Story Adult - “The Dinner Party” (No more than 500 words)

For further information and to upload your entries visit:

https://hailshamfestival.co.uk/event/creative-writing-competitons-2024/

⏰The clock is ticking so get those entries in! ⏰

07/06/2024

This year, our Festival is supported by many local businesses and organisations - without whom it would be impossible to run such a successful Arts Festival. Thank you to Lightning Fibre - our Headline Sponsor.

"Lightning Fibre has supported the festival for three years, helping us to deliver and grow our ever-popular festival. Without the support of businesses like Lightning Fibre, the Festival would not be possible. The arts represent a vital component of our culture, enriching our community and creating a vibrant landscape from which we all benefit.” Tony Biggin, Festival Chair

“We’re delighted to sponsor the Hailsham Festival once again, and we hope lots of people will experience and enjoy this year’s Festival.” Rob Reaks, Sales and Marketing Director, pictured left along with Tony Biggin (centre) and Cllr Mayor Paul Holbrook (right).

Lightning Fibre is a Polegate based broadband operator and internet provider, delivering full fibre connectivity to businesses and homes around Hailsham and East Sussex.

05/06/2024

This year’s Festival celebrates the one year anniversary of the unveiling of ‘The Artists’ Bridge’ (formerly known as Eastwell Place Bridge) which opened on 9th September 2023, giving a new lease of life to the previously unloved, graffiti covered bridge.

The Artists' Bridge was a terrific enterprise, executed by many of the Town's dedicated community leaders and continues to delight local residents . With 77 delightful pieces of art from local amateur and professional artists of all ages, ranging from local landscapes and landmarks, to abstract mixed media pieces, photography, mixed media and much more.

View within walking distance from Hailsham high street - half way down the footpath that runs to the right of the Genadier Pub, 67 High Street Hailsham, to the Memorial Institute on Western Road.

What3words location: ///plantings.humans.serious








Hailsham Artists Network Page

01/06/2024

Delighted to have Lightning Fibre as our headline sponsor for this year ✨️✨️

LOCAL Full Fibre Broadband provider Lightning Fibre has confirmed its headline sponsorship of Hailsham Festival, for a third consecutive year. Hailsham Festival features a varied line-up of talented regional artists and a feast of music, dance, drama, literature and street entertainment, and represe...

01/06/2024

📣📣SAVE THE DATE! 🥳🥳

We’re back for our 18th year!
✨️7th - 22nd September 2024✨️

Our 2024 programme is now ready for you to browse the array of Arts events coming to Hailsham this September!

Whether you’re into music, dance, visual arts, musicals, theatre, comedy, poetry, creative writing - there’s something for you.

Tag your friends and share with friends & family 🙏

Visit linktr.ee/hailshamfestival

16/05/2024

Lightning Fibre is delighted to confirm its Headline Sponsorship of Hailsham Festival for a third consecutive year.

“Lightning Fibre has financially supported the Hailsham Festival for three years, helping us deliver and grow our ever-popular Festival. Without the support of businesses like Lightning Fibre, the Festival would not be possible." Festival Chair, Dr Tony Biggin.

https://www.lightningfibre.co.uk/blog/lightning-fibre-sponsors-hailsham-festival-for-third-consecutive-year

📸 L-R: Rob Reaks, Dr Tony Biggin and The Worshipful, the Mayor of Hailsham, Councillor Paul Holbrook.

Hailsham Town Council Hailsham Festival Lightning Fibre

04/03/2024

Another fantastic review of String!

String at Grove Theatre Eastbourne is a clever and uplifting show, full of tenderness, gentle humour and history. Starting in 1967 with Young Harriet and Young Tom in a 'will-she? won't she?' exchange at the bus stop, the audience is soon swept into the present day to meet older Harriet, newly bereaved and as yet unable to leave her home, full of Tom, full of love and memories.

Harriet's friend Joan is on a different path and their search for fulfilment in a more mature stage of life is both funny and moving. There are not enough stories about women of this age, and I applaud String for giving them some limelight. Meanwhile, in another strand of the tale, the losses of the Great War are remembered through the portrayal of real-life hero Nelson Carter, awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Battle of Boar's Head.

Weaving together the three timelines of an accomplished piece of writing, the note-perfect cast tell the story in the best possible way - revealing big themes and important ideas through tiny human moments. I loved it.

- Jane Branson

03/03/2024

To See a World in a Grain of Sand
String! at the Grove Theatre, Eastbourne

This review is being written to express my experience of seeing String! – a musical by Tony Biggin and librettist Stephen Plaice – at the Grove Theatre on Friday last. As a member of the compact but sold-out audience I had very little idea what to expect. What transpired was a work of supreme calibre, and which one simply could not believe was being staged in such a petite venue. I am guessing now but this may be what billionaire’s children feel like when Adele or Beyonce play the tent in the back garden at their eighteenth.

But – the top-drawer talent aside – there was something more. To say String! is about Hailsham would be to invoke the same critical solecism which avers that, say, Julius Caesar is about the Italian capital two millennia ago. For the themes - as this play might have it: the shreds, the strands, the yarns. the flax, the fibres. the strings - are twisted and braided together to explore and, in fact, depict the fabric of English society. Narratively, it is both non-linear and impressionistic but the binding material is that precious and all-too-rare elixir: the authentic and the local.

The Great War is present. How could it not be? The numbers connected to the Battle of the Somme are always kind of surprising every time one re-encounters them. I recently heard the following formulation: more British casualties on the first three days than the total number of Americans killed in WWI, Korea and Vietnam put together, for instance. Steve Scott’s doughty Nelson Carter VC would not count among the numbers of this million men massacre because the Somme Offensive began officially on the 1st July 1916. Nelson Carter was mortally wounded, winning a VC in the process, aged 29, at Richebourg l’Avoue – up in Artois - the day before on the 30th June. On this day, within just five hours at the Battle of the Boar’s Head, the Royal Sussex lost 17 officers and 349 men. Over a thousand more were injured. As Plaice’s libretto has it, Christ was not there on ‘the day that Sussex died’.

Those of us who live in Sussex may know that someone - presumably the notorious Richard Beeching - restructured (closed) many railway lines in the 1960s. The play takes us to the last journey made along the Cuckoo Line between Hailsham and Eastbourne. This, of course, could sound winsome and parochial but here it does not, principally due to the implicit modesty of the play’s sensibility. Contextualised as a fleeting moment in the young romance of the central characters –Harriet and Tom – the poetic effect is not absurd melodrama about something so prosaic but instead evokes a whisper of the changes wrought on our towns – let’s say, our lives – by extrinsic forces over which we have minimal awareness and understanding, and zero control.

Ruby Edwards who plays Harriet at age eighteen offers a demur, rational, unsilly girl falling for Tyler Sargent’s lively, besotted Tom. Fast-forward to the present and Tom is dead, Chris Parke’s watchful ghost still present in the home. I remarked earlier in the review that the talent here is of the highest quality. Marcia Bellamy is a mezzo sopranist of note and her bereaved Harriet is the heart of the play. ‘This house, Tom’ which is sung in the depleted marital home resounds with an almost unbearable poignancy combined with a fortitude and resilience which verges on the heroic.
By way of dazzling contrast is her friend Joan who is the more liberated, both morally and maritally, of the two. Joan positively encourages Harriet to join her on the dating scene. Harriet is naturally full of apprehension and hesitation about taking things further with Jozik Kotz’s mild-mannered Robin Foulkes.
This is an enormously talented ensemble – cast and musicians - working with material by two inspired and adroit craftsmen in Plaice and Biggin who actually have something complex, nuanced and powerfully romantic to say. A sun has come out over Hailsham.

Five stars isn’t enough.

- Dan Hill

02/03/2024

It's the final night of String tonight, and we've released ten tickets for the show. Come on down and enjoy a love letter to Hailsham - a wonderful show about love, loss, and the art of letting go.

Show starts 7.30pm
Book here: https://grovetheatre.onlineticketseller.com/events/55892