Saturday May 26 sees the start of the final bank holiday weekend of the spring, and following the fine weather of the last bank holiday and the, admittedly mixed, but generally warm forecast for this weekend, both Rye and Camber are expecting a heavy influx of visitors.
Camber’s recent experience has been a painful one with car parks overflowing onto roadside verges and pavements leading to complaints that police were doing nothing to prevent the problem of illegal parking. The police themselves have said all their available manpower was engaged in dealing with the visitors once they had left their cars and there were no further resources available to control illegal parking as well. It seems likely that this situation will now change but Rye News has no firm information on this from the police.
But away from the obvious attractions of the beach – given a modest amount of sunshine – what else can visitors and residents alike look forward to? So often there has been a plethora of events – Rye is rarely short of artists of all disciplines showing off their talents – and although there is something of a hiatus at the moment, the town is far from totally devoid of entertainment.
There is always music somewhere and Friday from 9pm Stuart Bligh and Hannah Bradbeer will be showcasing their own version of blues, rock and soul at the Ypres Castle and more music from other artists on Sunday.
Away from music, there is artwork on display at Rye Art Gallery in the High Street, whose current exhibition, the Art of the Printmaker is on until June 9, as well as a number of other galleries also in the High Street and around the town. If art is not your thing, then St Mary’s church, as well as the amazing view from the top of its tower, has its annual flower festival with the interior of the church totally transformed with the sight and scent of the freshly cut and arranged flowers. A similar festival is also to be seen at St Peter and St Paul in Peasmarsh.
The East Surrey Morris Men will be strutting their stuff at various locations on Sunday and if wild life is a fascination, why not try the ‘Walking Festival’ round Rye Harbour Nature Reserve spotting the amazing variety of rare plants and possibly birds that occupy this very special environment.
If the weather fails to live up to the forecasters’ hopes then there is the opportunity to retreat to one (or more) of the town’s myriad pubs some (such as the Standard in the Mint) serving excellent food, or restaurants or tea rooms. And if all else fails, there is always our first class Kino Cinema with its cafe, bar and very comfortable seats.
Photo: Rye News library