Hastings Festivals

Sixty annual festivals, and barely a fortnight between them.

Hastings and St Leonards run something most weeks of the year — chess in January, pirates in July, a jazz funeral for Halloween. This is every recurring festival we can find, by the month it usually lands in. Dates move; the links go to the organisers, who will have this year’s. For what’s on this week rather than this year, try the gig guide.

January

• Hastings International Chess Congress — Grandmasters in a seaside hotel over new year. Running since 1920, and name-checked in One Night in Bangkok.
• MUSIC FOR MIDWINTER — Three nights of concerts in local venues, from Sounds St Leonards — an Arts Council-funded series working with venues across both towns.

February

• Hastings Fat Tuesday — Five days of live music and parades for Mardi Gras. The biggest thing in the town’s music calendar.
• Hastings Games Fest — Board games old and new plus retro arcade cabinets, at the White Rock Theatre.
• Hastings Musical Festival — A competitive festival at the White Rock — dancers, singers, musicians and actors of all ages, marked by an adjudicator, with feedback for everyone.

March

• Chinese Lunar Festival: 1st March 2026 — Kings Road fills with stalls and performers for Chinese New Year.
• Hastings Easter Festival — Bands across several genres, an art exhibition and local food traders on Easter Saturday. Free entry.
• Hear Me Roar — Speakers, performers and workshops at the Observer Building. Family friendly, all welcome.
• Sonics — The underground and experimental end — music, art, film and installations. Started in 2015 by local artist Danny Pockets, who died in 2018.

April

• A Town Explores a Book — A town-wide literary trail through the spring holiday: window displays, benches, the station, bus shelters.
• Hastings Beatles Day — Local and visiting musicians play the Fab Four for a day, raising money for the Sara Lee Trust.
• Sri Lankan New Year Festival (18th April 2026) — Third year at Horntye Park. Free entry, run by Sri Lankans in Hastings.
• Trash Cannes Film Festival — Make a film in five days. Twenty years old, revived a decade ago by the Trash Cannes collective, and open to complete beginners.

May

• A Curious Town Festival — Performances, workshops, talks, exhibitions and installations from local and guest artists.
• Good Grief Hastings (22-25 May) — 18 Hours and St Michael’s Hospice make room to talk about death and bereavement, through art, film, dance and conversation.
• Hastings ROCK: Rockfest (24th May) — Five bands at The Carlisle, from about 4pm.
• Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green — A 19th-century sweeps’ custom, revived. A garland paraded through town, with morris dancers, giants and a great deal of green.
• Lets Get It Together 2026 : 22nd–24th May — Twenty-five DJs across multiple venues over the bank holiday — soul, jazz, funk, boogie, disco, deep house, afro tech, broken beat.
• Mayday Bikers Run — One of the largest May Day bike runs in Europe. Stay for Jack in the Green.

June

• Crazy Golf World Championships — Europe’s best turn up to play for real money. Hastings is the spiritual home of the sport, which tells you something.
• Hastings Beer & Music Festival — Wednesday to Sunday of beer and live music — a night at the proms, Ibiza house DJs, and a finale in the big tent.
• Hastings Comedy Festival — One of the better small comedy fringes in the country.
• Hastings Comic Con — Two days of writers, illustrators, screen guests and cosplay.
• Sanctuary Festival — Closes Refugee Week with a day of music and creativity across the town’s cultures.

July

• Beatwave — A weekend of 60s surf, beat, rock’n’roll and garage by the sea, with ska, psych, R&B and soul on the decks. From the people behind The Fratcave.
• Hastings Pirate Day — Holds the world record for most pirates in one place. Parade, free live music and food on The Stade.
• Hastings Regatta — Coastal rowing off Hastings beach, part of the CARA season.
• St Leonards Festival (11 July) — Free outdoor performance, music, carnival and parades in St Leonards since 2006.
• Battle Festival — Music, visual arts and fringe events up the road in Battle.

August

• Hastings Hidden Beach Festival — Music, film, food, movement and conversation. Now runs across a month rather than a weekend.
• Hastings PRIDE — Parade, live bands and DJs.
• Hastings ‘Nearly on the Beach’ Concert — Local bands on a big stage on The Stade, during Carnival Week.
• KOHO Festival — Local acts, one day, money to local charities.
• Rye International Jazz and Blues Festival — Ten thousand people, eclectic programming, half an hour up the coast.
• Hastings Old Town Carnival Week — Open houses, walking tours, treasure trails, talks, pram racing, street parties, and a procession to finish. Volunteer-run since 1968.

September

• Bring Your Nan Fest — Family-friendly punk, with bands from across the UK and beyond.
• Coastal Currents — The visual arts festival — open studios across both towns plus profiled artists. Usually the whole of September.
• Hastings Book Festival — Workshops, talks, readings, masterclasses and performances across every genre.
• Hastings Garden Festival — Green charities and growing groups at White Rock Gardens, with acoustic music, spoken word and workshops. Run by the Hastings Botanic Garden Project.
• Hastings Seafood and Wine Festival — Fifty-plus food and drink traders, a music marquee and cooking demos on the seafront. One of the town’s biggest weekends.
• PhotoHastings Festival — Contemporary photography — exhibitions, talks, workshops and mentoring. A photographers’ collective since 2009.
• SWATCH BMX Battle of Hastings — Four days at Source Park in a team format, plus the Beach Jam and Flatland Battles. Livestreamed worldwide.
• XMTR Audio Arts Festival — Creative audio and sonic storytelling across venues in St Leonards — performance, focused listening, immersive work.

October

• Hastings Bonfire — A parade of fire and music, then a bonfire and fireworks on the beach.
• Hastings Chamber Music Festival — Serious players, expressive repertoire.
• Hastings Classic Car Show — Classic cars across the decades. Free.
• Hastings Jazz Festival — One day, several venues in the town centre — Henry Ward Hall, Barnaby’s Lounge, Holy Trinity — all within walking distance.
• Hastings Oktoberfest — Beer, bratwurst and bands.
• Hastings Rocks International Film Festival (HRIFF) – 30 Oct to 1 Nov — Horror that argues with itself, plus dystopian, esoteric and noir drama — and films made in and around Hastings by emerging local film-makers.
• Hastings Storytelling Festival (17-25 October) — Spoken word, dance, puppetry, parades, theatre, talks and digital media.
• Hastings Tap Takeover — Venues across both towns each hand their taps to one independent brewery for the weekend. A beer festival spread over a whole town.
• Hastings Trans Pride — Fifteen events across eight days of community building, support and celebration. Running since 2023.
• Hastings Voodoo Fest — The Old Town’s season closer. Modelled on a New Orleans jazz funeral and second line — Day of the Dead rather than slasher.
• Hastings Week — The 1066 anniversary, marked with a week of everything the town does now.

November

• St Leonards Frost Fair — The Kings Road lights switch-on, entertainment and a street procession.

December

• Hastings Old Town Christmas — The Christmas market, and the independents along George Street and the High Street.
• Westfield Hastings Christmas Tractor Run — Hundreds of tractors lit up like Christmas, raising money for charity. Run by Rural Past Times.

Resting

Still part of the town’s calendar, but with nothing in the diary. We will move them back up the page the moment they return.

• Hastings Theatre Festival — Six touring professional shows, chosen on their reviews. No edition since 2025 — appears to be resting.
• Hastings International Composers Festival — Four concerts of tuneful contemporary classical music, with the living composers present. No edition since 2018 — the website has not been updated since 2022.
• Hastings’ International Piano Concerto Competition — Young pianists from around the world compete on the concerto repertoire. Now biennial; the 2026 edition has run, so the next is expected in 2028.

Something missing, or a date we’ve got wrong? Tell us and it goes in. The venues and promoters behind these are listed at venues and promoters.