After months of fuss leading up to the Brexit result, it was a relief to have nice plans for Saturday June 25. In the afternoon a friend and I went to the Fish Festival in Hastings, on the Stade. It was buzzing, people mingling among many stalls of different food offerings. There were lots of fish dishes available, wonderful desserts, champagne, wine tasting and in the Stade Hall there was a cooking demonstration by Olly Dawson from Olly’s Fish Shack.
As we sat on the grass sampling some of the dishes we listened to a great band, Justin and the Argonauts, a four piece ensemble (violin, accordion, guitar and tuba). The music was an eclectic and fast paced blend of tango and classical with some gypsy flavour.
I had not been to the Hastings pier since it was rebuilt so off we went for a bracing walk along the beach. We were totally bowled over by the architecture of the pier as well as the spaciousness between various sales huts and the interesting design of the restaurant.
The furniture on the deck was impressively made out of lovely wood and there was a seating area which had glass around three sides to protect the visitors from the wind but still with a beautiful panoramic view across the sea.
We wanted very much to find out who the architect was and asked staff who didn’t know this but were very helpful trying to find it on their mobiles. It only gave the name of the agency dRMM and that it was a Dutch architect.
I was lucky enough to have a ticket for a 7:30pm Elizabethan Musical Evening at Oxenbridge Farm in Iden. Jill and Jim Wood very kindly made their grand, wonderful barn available for this charity performance. (Proceeds to Demelza’s Children’s Hospice and St Michael’s Hospice) We were seated across five long tables, nicely decorated, greeted with a glass of cider and the food was organised by the caterers Frolic Ladies.
The musical programme was extraordinary, performed by Cantemus, a choir which sounded heavenly with its repertoire of 16th-20th Century sacred and secular music, as did the soloists Lin Taylor and Rebekah Gilbert who sang an aria from Dido’s Lament by Purcell and whose voices sounded very pure in this spacious, lofty space.
Queen’s Consort, which took turns to entertain us, consisted of four very talented musicians, all very versatile, playing several instruments and introducing the many different recorders with their haunting sounds of the Elizabethan time. A wonderful evening.
Photos: Heidi Foster and Jim Wood
Image Credits: Rye News library .