BBC South East announced this week that it will visit major events in the area during August in order to provide special reports including Rye on Friday August 24 to report on Rye’s International Jazz and Blues Festival 2018 which includes a mix of free and ticketed events over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
The festival kicks off on Funky Friday and there will be outdoor stages at the Kino Cinema (at the top of Lion Street) and the Butter Market (under the Town Hall in Market Street).
Ticketed events over the weekend will be taking place in St Mary’s church, the Gallivant in Camber, Rye Lodge Hotel, the Mermaid Inn and the Cricket Club.
Free events will be taking place at the Queen’s Head, the Grapevine in Conduit Hill, Old Borough Arms, Simply Italian, the Ship Inn and Rye’s new micropub at the Waterworks in Cinque Ports Street.
As the photo below shows the BBC have visited the festival before – but it is not certain whether they will be bringing their ice cream van again.
The principal artists appearing over the weekend include Tony Momrelle, Zara McFarlane, Clare Teal, Courtney Pine, Joan Armatrading and Ronnie Scott’s Blues Explosion.
For the full programme and more information go to ryejazz.com. Festival mini guides can also be found at many locations around Rye.
Historic Rye received a lot of coverage and publicity when the BBC filmed Mapp and Lucia here in the original locations well known to author EF Benson who lived in Lamb House in West Street, and the town may get similar coverage over the Bank Holiday weekend.
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Market Street , which was transformed into Tilling High Street for Mapp and Lucia,will be closed for part of each day during the jazz festival because of the Butter Market under the historic Town Hall (on the right of the adjacent photo) being used for free performances.
Photos: Rye News library