Hastings Fat Tuesday Festival has been saved - and now confirmed for 2024

It means that the music festival will return in February, albeit with a smaller programme than in recent years (February 9-13).

General manager Hannah Deeble said: “The 2024 Festival was in jeopardy following the announcement from Arts Council England that they would not be supporting the event, but thanks to the generous donations and support by local people the event can go ahead.

“Director Sally Lampitt confirmed that with the reduced budget, our priority was to secure the popular Saturday Unplugged and Tuesday Tours, which supports 30 venues, 84 live acts, hundreds of musicians, engineers and local freelancers as well as attracting large local crowds.

“The full festival schedule and line-up will be announced in the coming weeks. But along with the Unplugged Saturday and Tuesday Tour it is expected to include an opening party at the Albion, an Under the Radar gig at the Piper, Sonics line-ups at the Pig, Slim Monday, the Reggae Room and an After Party. The restricted funds have meant that the Unconvention music conference, The Mardi Gras Ball and the annual Parade and Preservation Sunday will not return this year.

“HFT are also delighted to announce that, thanks to the extremely generous support of Curve Pusher and Curve Pressings, a 15 Year Anniversary album has been released on vinyl with songs donated by ten festival favourites, including HotWax, Kid Kapichi, Skinny Lister, King Size Slim, Matilda’s Scoundrels, Cajun Dawgs and Crunchy Bat and previously unreleased tracks by Buddha Triangle, Jamie Smart and Liane Carroll. The album is available to buy from the HFT website. Funds from the record sales will directly support this year’s festival and our youth engagement work.”

Curve Pusher’s founder Lawrie Dunster said: “When I moved to Hastings I felt an instant connection that I can’t explain. We moved our entire business and our families here and Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival was a big part of that. We make records. We recognise that Hastings Fat Tuesday has always supported the development of local artists and I wanted to find a way to support the continuation of the festival and support the local scene. My idea was to give the local artists a platform on vinyl and donate all the records to Hastings Fat Tuesday so as to facilitate funding for the festival, which by coincidence, is needed more this year than ever.”

New for 2024, the festival will also be hosting an official Hastings Fat Tuesday Fringe, with venues and organisers invited to list additional mardi gras activity on the main HFT site for a small fee. More info at https://hastingsfattuesday.co.uk/news

Hastings Fat Tuesday CIC is a not-for-profit organisation that delivers a year-round programme of activity to support the communities of Hastings and St Leonards. This includes the flagship Hastings Fat Tuesday Music Festival, biennial Sonics electronic music festival and a range of live music events and community sessions/workshops to support musicians and young people, and provide engaging cultural experiences for all.

“Our aim is to promote creative opportunities to people at all stages of their lives through arts and culture.”