10th Festival of Arts & Culture a Big Success

This year’s Hailsham Festival of Arts & Culture has been well received by the public and hailed a success by the Town Mayor, as hundreds of people turned out to a wide variety of events last week.

The festival, which ran from Thursday 8th September to Monday 19th September, saw a steady stream of visitors to the town and had a varied programme of events to capture the attention of the public.

Visitors got the chance to attend a rich mix of art exhibitions, live music, theatrical events, children’s workshops and historical art talks, spread throughout Hailsham and surrounding areas.

Regular Festival updates, news and interviews were broadcast on Hailsham Festival FM, which also featured great music, lots of specialist shows and much participation from local people and organisations.

Entertainment at this year’s festival included performances from three-piece rock band The Memphis Flyers, contemporary folk group Hatful of Rain, popular blues band Howlin’ Blues and the Pete Willson Promenade Orchestra, which provided the music entertainment for the festival’s opening event — Prom in the Pinetum.

The special tenth anniversary festival programme featured the biggest art trail yet with over 20 venues participating and well over 100 local artists exhibiting, plus visiting artists from Hailsham’s twin town of Gournay-en-Bray in France.

A number of competitions formed part of the line-up including those for poetry, short story writing, short film and children’s sculpture. The Square Youth Café hosted a ‘Mini-ville’ workshop, at which children made their very own miniature town out of cardboard based on their very own design.

“I’m delighted with how this year’s arts festival went,” said Hailsham Town Mayor Councillor Nigel Coltman. “It turned out to be an outstanding eleven days and there seemed to be a lot of people attending the art trail workshops and exhibitions, as well as the various live entertainment events.”

“I want to thank all the staff, volunteers and everybody else who was part of the festival’s planning and organization from the outset.”

Deputy Town Mayor and chairman of the Town Council’s Communities Committee, Councillor Amanda O’Rawe said: “Organisers wanted to ensure that the festival continues to be inclusive and open to all the family, and I think they achieved that very well indeed.”

“Local artists and entertainers rose to the occasion full of new ideas this year and the level of support for what was a very diverse program was simply outstanding.”