Hastings Borough Council's Stade Saturdays season has kicked off with a really strong performance from Compagnie Dyptik presenting D-Construction. The exciting hip hop dancers on scaffolding were really appreciated by the enthusiastic audience.
Deputy leader Kim Forward, lead member for culture said, "I am delighted that the Council can offer this fantastic free season of events to the community of Hastings. Stade Saturdays has something to offer everyone with circus, dance, music, food, and visual art. Bring your friends and family to enjoy the season which runs until October on the Stade in the old town."
This week-end features Hexagonal play high energy music with African and jazz influences. Essentially a co-operative, the group, which comprises of Jason Yarde - alto sax, Greg Heath - tenor sax/flute, Graham Flowers - trumpet, John Donaldson - piano, Simon Thorpe - bass and Tristan Banks - drums, has worked with some of the greatest names in the business, including the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra, Mica Paris, Van Morrison, James Brown, Liane Carroll, Whitney Houston, Eddie Henderson, Larry Grenadier, Steve Grossman, Amy Winehouse and David Gilmour. Having formed p in 2016 to play the music of the late, great South African born musician, Bheki Mseleku and the great Afro-American pianist McCoy Tyner, they are now hailed as a jazz "super group" by the 606 club and others. Hot jazz with pointy bits.
Dancers (and would-be dancers) can join in an evening of ballroom, salsa and tango dancing at Strictly Stade Saturdays on Saturday, 7 July, with workshops from 5pm.
On July 14 Direct from Nashville via Hastings Old Town, Mike Willis's well-crafted songs are more California than Tennessee bringing a little West Coast to the English south coast. At times intimate, then sing-along, then rocking, Willis is a man for all musical seasons. Catch him performing with his band, a little piece of Americana with Hastings' best.
After the Annual Hastings "Nearly on the Beach Concert" at the Stade , the Lantern society songwriters festival will feature the very best original songwriters to have graced the Hastings and London acoustic club stages on 11 August.
Cirque Rouages present Sodade an event sponsored by Coasters. On 18 August with stunning acrobatics and moving stories, Sodade is a fable on a wire told through music and circus.
As part of the Journeys Dance Festival, The Southpaw Dance Company present CAROUSEL with 18 Hours and Coasters. A fully functioning merry-go-round which provides the centrepiece for an edgy story of the enigmatic characters who inhabit the fairground. As the fair shuts down for the night, its public face gives way to the exhilarating private celebrations and personal tragedies of an intensely close-knit group of people. Music, dance and drama combine for a stunning piece of dance theatre, in which the performers use the carousel's revolving platform to flip, roll, dive, and spin to an eclectic Balkan and gypsy-influenced score on 25 August.
Supported by Arts Council England's Strategic Touring Fund, Coasters is a three year project that brings world-class circus and street arts work to coastal towns across England.
Connecting Hastings and Rother Together (CHART) is a Community-led Local Development Programme with access to some £2.8m of European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) to support projects that bring a fresh approach to tackling deep-rooted problems in deprived communities within Hastings and Bexhill.
Deputy leader of Hastings Borough Council, Councillor Kim Forward said, "I'm really pleased that people in our most deprived communities will be able to access support to achieve their potential. It is essential that we work to ensure that everyone feels the benefit of the success and regeneration of our town."
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND OUTREACH: capacity building for local communities and organisations.
The first call for project applications incorporating one or more of these work packages will go live on 28 June 2018, with a second call for all work packages in the spring of 2019.
Hastings Borough Council is the Accountable Body for the CHART programme and will oversee the administration and management of CHART. The programme and successfully funded projects will be delivered by early 2022.
*This figure includes up to £898,537.67 to support the Management and Administration of the programme by the accountable body as well as the £2.8m to support projects within the local community.
Over the last 20 years, the Links Project, which is supported by Hastings Borough Council, has been working with immigrants and asylum seekers. This year national refugee week (18 - 24 June 2018) celebrated acts of welcome shown to refugees by individuals and communities across the UK and Europe.
The theme for this year was "Step up and stand with refugees". The Mayor of Hastings, councillor Nigel Sinden said. "Today is a celebration. A celebration of the contributions from all refugees in our society but also a day where we can learn and understand more about why people take refuge and educate others here in Hastings about these reasons.
"Because then we can become a more compassionate and caring community.
"In a world which sometimes seems to be destructive and far from loving, today we can remember all those who we love and cherish and remember that we are all members of the one race and that is the human race. And to be human is to act with kindness, to share and learn from each other.
"And this sharing of different cultures makes Hastings a more vibrant, exciting, caring, diverse, tolerant and colourful place to live.
"I am proud to be here today, proud to be celebrating refugee week and proud to be part of flying the banner of one Hastings many voices. "
"We have met some incredibly vulnerable but brave people often who first arrive here with only the clothes they have travelled in, little English and limited understanding of life in the UK.
"Our aim has always been to make them feel welcome and that our project is a safe space for them. We have also seen some incredible acts of kindness, generosity and acceptance by the people of Hastings, some of whom only have a small amount to give themselves."
The Links Project is a multi-agency support and advice project for asylum seekers, refugees and new migrant communities living in East Sussex. It runs a drop in on Wednesday each week from 10.30am - 4pm at Concordia Hall, Church Road, St Leonards and also provides telephone support during the rest of the week.