Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival: 28th of February to the 4th of March 2025 is back again and it's time to celebrate Britain's largest Mardi Gras in Hastings! The full details of events can be found at the website. As usual I'll share details and notes here about the history of Mardi Gras itself. The festival encompasses numerous venues across Hastings throughout the 5 days of the festival until culminating on the evening of Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/whatever 🎶 Tuesday the 4th of March, for the Fat Tuesday Tour 2025 (website), with partying and music galore from 24 established acts at 12 venues from The Carlisle in the west to The Dolphin Inn in the east, and entry is free. Plus there's the Reggae Room Party at East Hastings Sea Angling Association (website).
Mardi Gras, New Orleans, Spectacle!
OK, we may not be as spectacular as Mardi Gras in New Orleans (website) which has been going since 1703, originally 60 miles south of New Orleans, at Point Du Mardi Gras, where 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!
Or as glamourous as Carnaval in Rio which 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 (Sambassadorsofgroove). Mardi Gras was now celebrated in Rio together with the development of Samba schools in the 1920s (there are 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 was introduced, and since 1933 Rio Carnaval has become the largest Mardi Gras festival in the World, with 2 million people participating every year.
We may not have as much spectacle and glamour as New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro, although 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 we do have free live music galore and we party, for example Saturday 1st March Unplugged boasts 60 emerging artists and bands playing 15 minutes acoustic sets at 30 venues across Hastings, for 5 hours from 1-6pm, from Day Glo Records in St Leonards in the west, to the Dolphin Inn in the Old Town in the east (if you don't have a programme already, for specific acts and where they're playing, go to the website), entry is free, and don't be surprised to find more free non-festival live music at a number of venues Saturday evening too, this is Hastings!
Whichever events you attend do enjoy our Mardi Gras and have fun!
