What’s on in Hastings: where to look, and how to get listed – Hastings Flyer

There’s no single place that lists every gig, concert, play, comedy night, and film that’s on in Hastings and St Leonards.

Back in 2016 I created an early version of this website for that exact reason – I kept missing things. I was living in a constant state of FOMO.

But at that time my problem was there was no place at all.

Now Hastings has a very different problem, because things have swung in the opposite direction and there are now about seventy. And between them they cover the town many times over in some places but not at all in others.

They range from hyper-local free events guides such as this one (and we’ve had three or four excellent looking new ones appear in the past few months alone), through general news and business directories that also feature event calendar sections, venue and festival specific sites, Facebook groups and Instagram pages, and national ticket agencies and data-mining sites that run on autopilot to capture clicks to generate ad revenue.

This page is a map of the evey one we could find: where to look if you want to find something to do, and where to put your own event so people can find it.

It isn’t a league table. A tourist board calendar for family entartainment and a Facebook group for punk gigs are both doing a job, just not the same job, and not targeting the same audience. Something that that suits selling a Tuesday folk session in a back bar is not necessarily also the one that is a good fit for marketing a Christmas panto – although it might be.

What follows is grouped by what each kind of listing is for.

But if you are a venue, a band or a promoter trying to get people to your gig ask yourself this one question: ‘Where do I see or find the events I go to?’

Try doing a few web searches in private search windows or devices that don’t have your search history to sway the results and see which websites come up in the top five…after all, do you ever go to search result links past the fifth one?

Have a look at how the ones you want to submit to structure their content and tweak things to fit – poster size and orientation is a big one here, but also how long a starpline they allow (if indeed they publish one at all – it’s important. See below).

So, if you are looking for something to do:

Start with the sites that do nothing but listings — they are the fullest and the most current. Then try the venues themselves, because a pub’s own page will have the open mic that never makes it onto anybody’s calendar. For a festival week, go to the festival’s own site: the programme is never fully reproduced anywhere else. And if you have the time navigate to a venue’s Facebook events tab on their page, because so many people these days only put up one FB event listing and hope everyone will see it organically (we can promise you though, very few do).

And if you are putting an event on:

Remember, tell more than one publication or website. It takes about twenty minutes to submit the same gig to the four or five places that matter, and the alternative is relying on one algorithm and a poster in a window. The short guide at the bottom of this page covers what to send and how to write it so it gets used.

Where do we get our listings from?

Increasingly people are starting to use our ADD LISTING form, and promoters, venues and bands are claiming their listing entries so they can control what people read about them. That’s great, because with hundreds of events in Hastings every month it’s hard to stay on top of tracking down new event posts on scores of Facebook pages and dozens of band and venue websites. We have a few automations, but typically only with larger venues that have ticket box offices. We always carry the health warning that things might change and we might miss a cancellation or line-up shift…so always check with the venue socials or website before setting out. We aren’t perfect.

Where to find what’s on

Here’s all the local Hastings sites we know of that do listings and nothing else…

These live or die on how complete they are, so they are usually the first place a new gig turns up.

Hastings Flyer — this site. Live music first, then theatre, festivals and community events across Hastings, St Leonards and the surrounding area.
What’s On Sea — a diary for Hastings, St Leonards, Bexhill, Eastbourne and along the coast, with thirteen categories and a venue A–Z. Run by one person in St Leonards, and not owned by a venue, a promoter or a ticket company.
Live Hastings — music only, covering Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill: every gig, every venue, every act, plus the record shops and open mics around them.
Salt Guide — a guide to the town rather than a calendar, with a what’s-on section alongside independent shops, places to eat and things to do with children. Has a Sunday newsletter.
What’s Happening, Hastings? — events, gigs, exhibitions and food, plus a directory of independent businesses.

How to get listed here: all five take submissions, and between them they are the single most useful twenty minutes you can spend on a gig.

Get your event on Hastings Flyer — free form, or send us a link to the event and we will do it.
List your event on What’s On Sea — free, reviewed before it appears. Venues can also hand over a calendar feed and have it update itself.
Submit an event to What’s Happening, Hastings? — a short form with categories and recurrence.
Salt Guide has no public form — get in touch through their About page.
Live Hastings has no public submission page that we could find. It appears to gather listings itself, so the way onto it is to be listed elsewhere first.

Local Hastings papers, radio and tourism sites carrying events pages…

Listings are not the main job here, which means they are often less complete — but they reach people who are not out looking for a gig, which is exactly the audience a half-empty room needs.

Hastings Independent Press — the local paper’s events and activities listings, alongside separate pages for music, cinema, performance and sport. Also appears in print.
Hastings Online Times — a full what’s-on guide covering music, dance, comedy, exhibitions, film, talks and theatre, with a separate courses section.
Hastings Rock — the community rock station’s event and gig guide. Online around the clock and now on DAB in Hastings.
Visit Hastings — the official destination site, run by Hastings Borough Council. Weighted towards festivals and the bigger events, and the one visitors find first.
Visit 1066 Country — the wider destination site, from Pevensey to Camber and inland, with a Hastings filter.
Hastings in East Sussex — a town guide with a distance filter, so you can widen the net to Fairlight or Bexhill.
1066online — a long-running Hastings guide whose listings include the theatre and cinema programmes, updated daily.

How to get listed here: these mostly want an email or an account rather than a quick form, and several have a lead time you have to respect.

Advertise an event on Visit Hastings — free, but at least fourteen days ahead, and it will not be published without a landscape image.
Submit an event to Visit 1066 Country — free, but non-member organisations get four free listings per financial year, so spend them on the ones that matter.
Add an event to 1066online — free, through Data Thistle, and they ask for at least four weeks’ notice.
Hastings Independent Press takes listings by email at listings@hastingsindependentpress.co.uk. It is a fortnightly paper, so ask about the copy deadline.
Hastings Online Times asks organisers to list their own events — email them and they will set you up and show you how.
Hastings Rock takes local music submissions at 1066sound@gmail.com.
Hastings in East Sussex needs a free account before you can add anything.

National listings and ticketing sites…

Worth a few minutes for anything with a ticket on it, and worth understanding before you start: some of these are listings sites you can submit to, and some only show your event because you are selling tickets through them. That distinction decides whether they are any use to you.

Free to list, no strings

Ents24 — gigs, comedy, club nights, theatre and festivals, ticketed or free. You do not have to sell through them.
GigXchange — grassroots live music, and the best-stocked Hastings page of any national site we checked. Underneath it is a booking marketplace for artists, venues and promoters.
AllEvents — everything from club nights to charity walks. Free to post, and you can list without selling tickets.
EventsList — a large aggregated feed with a free submission route. Much of its content is pulled in from elsewhere, so check your own entry.
Enjoy! — mostly ticketed venue shows; free to add.
thebestof Hastings — free community event listings alongside a business directory.

Ticketing platforms — you appear because you sell there

Skiddle — one of the biggest UK guides to gigs, clubs and festivals, with a busy Hastings page. Events get there through its Promotion Centre.
TicketSource — strong on community theatre, church halls and charity events, which is a lot of what happens here. Free events cost nothing at all.
Eventbrite — workshops, classes and community events as much as gigs. Free events are free to run.
OutSavvy — LGBTQ+ events. Discovery there works by hashtag, so tag it #hastingsevents or it will not show on the town page.

Worth knowing about, with a caveat

Bandsintown — artist-led. A promoter cannot add anything; each act has to add the date to their own profile. For a four-band bill that is four conversations.
Lemonrock — a pub and small-venue gig guide, but bands and venues need a paid subscription to list.
Stereoboard — a ticket comparison site that aggregates automatically. There is no way to submit, and it includes resale marketplaces, so check what you are buying.

Facebook groups covering Hastings and the surrounding areas…

Still where a lot of Hastings finds out what is on, particularly at short notice. Post the event, not just a poster — people search these groups by text, and an image has none.

Instagram (we don’t do much there so tell us what’s missing)…

@salt.guide — the Salt Guide feed.
@live_music_in_hastings_bexhill — gigs across Hastings and Bexhill.

Venues’ own listings in and around Hastings…

Always worth a look, because the weekly regulars — open mics, folk sessions, quiz nights — rarely make it onto anyone’s calendar but their own.

Theatres, halls and galleries

The White Rock — the town’s main theatre.
Stables Theatre — community theatre, musicals and comedy.
Stade Hall — classes, plays and music on the Stade.
The Observer Building — music, markets, exhibitions and workshops.
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery — talks, workshops and courses.
Hastings Castle — tours, workshops and performances.
Hastings Centre — classes and community groups on The Ridge.
De La Warr Pavilion — in Bexhill, and a short train ride; touring gigs and more.

Music venues, pubs and clubs

The Piper — indie, alternative and club nights in St Leonards. Its box office is its gig list.
The Carlisle — rock, punk, metal and goth, free nights and ticketed ones.
Blackbox — club nights, daytime discos, tribute gigs and cabaret.
The Jenny Lind Inn — Old Town pub gigs, open mics and shanty sessions.
Barnaby’s Lounge — jazz, world music and storytelling on Robertson Street.
The Dolphin Inn — folk, blues and covers in the Old Town.
The Pig — music, community and late nights on White Rock.
The Stag Inn — folk and acoustic sessions on All Saints Street.
Anchor Inn — live music on George Street.
Royal Standard — gigs and open mics in the Old Town.
French’s — DJs and live music on Robertson Street.
Millie’s Nightclub — club nights and occasional live bands.

Several of the pubs keep their dates on Facebook rather than their own site — The Stag, the Anchor, the Royal Standard and The Pig all point you there for what is actually on this week.

Cinemas

Electric Palace — cult and arthouse film, Q&As, live music and comedy in the Old Town.
Kino-Teatr — arthouse film, broadcast opera and ballet, theatre and concerts in St Leonards.
ODEON Hastings — mainstream releases and event cinema.

Hastings Promoters (you can find more on our promoter listings)

Worth following if a particular kind of night is your thing — a promoter’s own list is usually weeks ahead of anyone else’s.

Jazz Hastings — a monthly jazz club, now at Barnaby’s Lounge.
St Leonards Concerts — classical and world music, mostly at Christ Church on Silchester Road.
Black Rabbit Productions — tribute and live music across Sussex, with occasional Hastings dates.
Goose Events — Oktoberfest, rave bingo, country music and the darts open.
Mike’s List — music and arts listings, news and reviews.
Hive of Live — Facebook only.
Our promoter listings

Hastings’ Festivals and annual events

A festival programme is never fully reproduced anywhere else, so go to the source. Roughly in the order they fall through the year.

Hastings Fat Tuesday — five days of music across the town in February, plus satellite nights through the year.
Hastings Musical Festival — a competitive festival of dance, singing, instrumental, speech and drama each February or March, over a century old.
A Town Explores A Book — a spring community arts festival in St Leonards built around a single book.
Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green — four days of morris, music and procession over the May Day bank holiday.
Hastings Comedy Festival — a week of stand-up across the town’s pubs and venues in early June.
Hastings Pirate Day — a weekend on the seafront and in the Old Town in July.
Hastings Old Town Carnival Week — procession, pram race and the Blessing of the Sea in early August.
Hidden Beach — a summer festival on the beach, and year-round music, film and markets.
Rye International Jazz & Blues Festival — four days over the August bank holiday, twelve miles along the coast.
Coastal Currents Arts Festival — a month of visual art each September, including Open Studios weekends.
Hastings Book Festival — eleven days of literature in September, largely at the Observer Building.
XMTR Audio Arts Festival — three days of sound art and audio storytelling in late September.
Hastings Jazz Festival — a one-day, multi-venue festival in early October.
Hastings Week — nine days of community events across the town every October.
Hastings Storytelling Festival — nine days in October, ending with a children’s day.
Hastings Chamber Music Festival — four days of chamber music in October.
18 Hours — the producer behind Hastings Storytelling Festival, Journeys Festival of Dance and more.
Curious Agenda — the A Curious Town festivals of art, culture and community.

A short guide to getting your event found

Most events in Hastings that go unnoticed are simply badly described or presented. Whoever is running a listings site — us included — is working from whatever you send, usually at speed, usually on a phone. Make it easy to explain and understand what punters can expect and your event is much more likely to turn up everywhere and catch attention. Make it hard and it gets skipped, ignored, and lost in the noise.

How to write the title like a listing, not a poster…

Put the act first. Wasted Youth + West Wickhams tells somebody scrolling exactly what they are looking at. LIVE MUSIC THIS FRIDAY!! tells them nothing unless they go looking, and it’s the same four words as everyone else’s Friday. Leave the date out of the title — every listings site adds that itself. Use the venue name if it doesn’t make the title too long and if your listing is going somewhere that venue names aren’t prominent.

The strapline is the key to a good listing…

One line, and aim for aboutabout fifteen words. This it what answers the only question anyone is asking: why should I come to this rather than stay in? It’s not a genre tag. Indie band is a genre tag. ‘Last show before they go away to record the album‘, or ‘for fans of Alanis Morrisette’ is a reason.

Straplines are the single most-useful thing you can give a listings site. They go on event cards, in weekly round-ups, into the newsletter. A gig with a good one stands out over a gig without, not out of favouritism, but because you’ve sold it.

Posters are read at the size of a thumbnail – so design them that way…

Almost nobody sees your poster at A3. They see it about three centimetres wide, on a phone, while doing something else. So: make the act’s name big enough to stand out at that size, and then the date and the venue legible, and the price somewhere if anyone bothers to open it to full size or if it is actually a real poster on a wall. Hand-lettering that looks superb on a printed flyer often turns to mush at thumbnail size — check it by shrinking it on your own screen before you publish it it.

Send a landscape image as well if you can. Most listings sites and nearly every social platform crop to landscape, and a tall poster centre-cropped loses both the headline and the date.

If that’s forty minutes you havn’t got, or you simply don’t have the skills, Promote Your Gig will make the shapes for you — answer four questions, add a photo, and it turns out a poster and the social versions, with the words to go with them. It’s not AI – and you can control the style you want to achieve.

Put the day of the week on it…

People tend to favour certain nights of the week to go out, but don’t have camendars in their heads. So Saturday 13th December is rather than just 13th December works better. But remember, whoever imports it to a listings guide has to work out which December you meant, and sometimes gets it wrong if they aren’t expecting you to be booking a long way ahead. Give the year somewhere if it is next year especially.

Doors and start are different times…give them both

If the poster says 8pm and the band is on at 9.30, say both. People turn up for the time on the listing, and an hour and a half in a half-empty room is how a good night gets a bad write-up.

Say if it is free…that’s a winner, especially for visitors to the town who may not know your deals…

Free entry is a reason to go out on a wet Tuesday, and it’s one of the things people mentally filter by. If there is no price on the poster or anything to explicitly say free, many listings default to assuming there is a ticket but no price or link appears. People are left to guess.

Give it two to four weeks advance notice to submit before the date…

Some of the sites above won’t take anything inside fourteen days, and one asks for four weeks. Newsletters go out weekly, and the local paper is fortnightly. A gig submitted on the Thursday for the Friday can only make it onto the fastest-moving listings, which are the ones with the smallest readership.

One link that works – where do you want people to land if they click a button?

Send the direct link to the ticket page or the event, not the venue’s home page, and not a link that only opens inside an app. If there are no tickets, say where people pay — on the door, cash, card, both.

Tell more than one – don’t rely on one relatively closed loop of places you post to…

No single listing reaches everybody, and the overlap between any two of the sites on this page is smaller than you would think. The same twenty minutes spread across four or five of them is the difference between the people who already follow you and the people who do not.

Something missing, moved or closed? Tell us and we will fix it. This page is only useful if it is right.