You know Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival 2019 (website) is kicking off when you see this marker in the town centre! Indeed, this is the 10th anniversary of Hastings Fat Tuesday, which always starts a wee bit early here compared to elsewhere in the world, and kicks off tonight with the Fat Friday Launch Party and The Great Malarkey starting at 8pm in The Albion (website), and encompasses numerous venues in the old and new towns throughout the 5 days of the festival until culminating on the evening of Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras itself...
Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Spectacle!
OK, it may not be as spectacular as Mardi Gras in New Orleans (website) which has been going nearby since 1703, 60 miles south of New Orleans, at Point Du Mardi Gras, where certain French explorers landed a few years earlier, on the day of Mardi Gras, the 2nd of March 1699. New Orleans was established in 1718, with Mardi Gras regularly celebrated there by the 1830s, and by 1875, large floats were being built in New Orleans to celebrate the festival, the year it became a legal public holiday.
Rio de Janeiro Carnaval, Glamour!
Mardi Gras in Rio, has been celebrated, initially with feasts, since the 17th century, masquerade balls became popular in the 19th century, but in the early 20th century the culture of African music and dance, introduced by freed slaves and their children, was enveloped within Portuguese Rio de Janeiro, then was founded the dance style of Samba (website). Mardi Gras was now celebrated in Rio together with the development of Samba schools in the 1920s (about 200 schools in existence now) the Carnaval (Portuguese for Carnival) festival became centred on the parade of the Samba schools and the glamour that introduced (website), and since 1933 Rio Carnaval has become the largest Mardi Gras festival in the World, with 2 million people participating every year!
OK, we may not have as much spectacle and glamour as New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro, though there will be plenty of dressing up, be assured of that, and Mardi Gras and Carnaval have been going considerably longer than Fat Tuesday in Hastings... but what we do have is music galore, and not a wee bit of merriment, carrying on with 40 artists and bands playing short sets at 20 venues across the Old Town tomorrow, 2nd March, for 5 hours from 1-6pm, and from St Mary in the Castle in Pelham Crescent to the Dolphin Inn in Rock-a-Nore Road (if you don't have a programme already, for specific acts and where they're playing, go to the website), plenty to enjoy!
Also tomorrow there is Thee Saturday Sonics (website - also on Sunday) at the Black Market from 1-6pm, and, in the spirit of masquerade, is Le Grand Mardi Gras Ball, from 8pm until 2 in the morning, at St Mary in the Castle (website - early bird tickets £15), and, not to forget, plenty of music at the usual Saturday venues, have fun!
Not to forget Saturday 2nd is the final day of the Piano Concerto Competition (blog).
Not to forget Saturday 2nd is the final day of the Piano Concerto Competition (blog).
No comments:
Post a Comment