Hastings Fat Tuesday Tour - 25th February 2020

It's Mardi Gras in Hastings!

Tuesday the 25th of February is the day, Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday, whatever you call it, and Hastings hosts the biggest Mardi Gras festival in Britain: 24 acts will be playing at the following 12 venues mainly in Hastings Old Town:

Albion, 33 George Street TN34 3EA;
BlackMarket VIP, 10 George Street TN34 3EG;
Carlisle, 24 Pelham Street TN34 1PE;
Dolphin Inn, 11-12 Rock-a-Nore Road TN34 3DW;
Dragon Bar, 71 George Street TN34 3EE;
First In Last Out, 14-15 High Street TN34 3EY;
Jenny Lind Inn, 69 High Street TN34 3EW;
London Trader, 4-7 East Beach Street TN34 3AR;
Lord Nelson, 1 East Bourne Street TN34 3DP;
Porters Wine Bar, 56 High Street TN34 3EN;
Pumphouse, 64 George Street TN34 3EE;
Royal Standard, East Beach Street TN34 3DW.

Each of the 24 acts will play 20 minutes sets in 3 of the venues, and each venue will have 6 acts, from 8.00 pm until 11.00/11.30 pm; please go to the Hastings Fat Tuesday website for greater detail for each act and each venue. In addition, from 8.00 pm until 1.00 am, opposite the Lifeboat Station at East Hastings Sea Angling Association, The Stade TN34 3FJ, will be the Reggae Room Party.

If you want to be play it by ear, just walk around the Old Town but don't be surprised by the quality of free live music available, so have fun and party... Phew!

Then, if you still have energy to carry on, the Fat Tuesday After Party is on from 10.00 pm until 4.00 am at the Brass Monkey in the town centre, 18 Havelock Road TN34 1BP. The website states tickets cost £10.00, but if you go to the link to purchase tickets from eventbrite it suggests £11.01 per ticket... Presumably booking fee added?

If you haven't already read it, more about Mardi Gras in last Tuesday's blog.


Many thanks to the Hastings Fat Tuesday website for the image above, cheers!

Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival: Slim Monday

This evening brings the eleventh Slim Monday featuring King Size Slim, and located at the Lord Nelson, 1 East Bourne Street TN34 3DP. Here you may meet many of the Hastings Fat Tuesday musicians and singers in 'civvies' during this laid back event from 6.30 pm, music starting at 7.30 pm (website). The calm before the storm! 😉

Fat Tuesday Festival Continues...

As I said in my blog the other day, today sees 40 artists and bands playing 15 minutes acoustic sets for Unplugged, from 1 pm to 6 pm, at 25 venues across Hastings (between 8 and 11 acts at each venue! - website). Not just all that free live music, but today and tomorrow (Sunday) Sonics 2020 (website) is a 2 day "celebration of experimental music, sound art and film." Plus, this evening/night from 8 pm to 2 am, is Le Grand Mardi Gras Ball, costing £22.50 (Tickets can be bought from the website).

Sadly, due to the bad weather forecast tomorrow (Sunday), the Umbrella Parade will not be experienced walking along the seafront this year (website), BUT! Head to the White Rock Theatre anyway, where 'dancers, musicians and lots of umbrellas' will be in abundance from 12 noon to 5 pm for Preservation Sunday (website).

In addition, Sonics 2020 (website) continues for its second day, and Under the Radar will be held, with 4 stages hosting "the best emerging young talent from across the UK, curated by BBC Introducing, Academy of Contemporary Music, Incubate (from The Eggtooth Project) and the Joe Strummer Foundation" (website). Under the Radar begins from 2 pm at The Carlisle, with the last act at that venue planned to come on stage at 7.30 pm, and from 5 pm to 11 pm at The Printworks, where it looks like, from the website, there may be more music on Monday the 24th!

So, plenty of musical fun to come, and even more on Monday, culminating with the Fat Tuesday Tour on the 25th, carry on enjoying Mardi Gras folks!

Fat Tuesday Music Festival Returns...

Yes, it's not for a week, but then, it starts much sooner...

You know the Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival 2020 (website) is back when you see leaflets and posters all over town! The festival kicks off on Friday with a one day music conference, Un-Convention, from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm at the White Rock Hotel (website), continuing that evening with the Fat Friday Launch Party starting at 7.45 pm (to 11.30 pm) at the White Rock Theatre (website), and goes on to encompass 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, Tuesday 25th (website), with partying and music galore!

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!

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 (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 (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 we party, for example on Saturday 22nd Unplugged carries on with 40 artists and bands playing 15 minutes sets at 25 venues across Hastings, for 5 hours from 1-6pm, and from Tommy's Pizzeria in St Leonards to the Dolphin Inn in Rock-a-Nore Road in the old town (if you don't have a programme already, for specific acts and where they're playing, please go to the website), with plenty to enjoy.

Also there is much more to follow until Fat Tuesday itself (website), and I shall be writing more about that too, but do enjoy yourselves have fun!