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| Councillor Jeremy Birch speaking at the Composers' Festival |
"This morning I opened the refurbishments at Summerfields
Leisure Centre and the free family fun day. Then I visited the Moveable Feast
community garden open day and enjoyed the lunch. In the afternoon I dropped
into the Hullabaloo at St Mary in the Castle and also enjoyed the Bodies in
Urban Spaces event in the town centre as part of our Coastal Currents Arts
Festival. This evening we were all wowed by the aerial performance of As the
World Tipped on the Stade. What other town of our size can offer anything like
this? Hastings
- Famously Cultural and Famously Fun"
That was my comment about just one breathless September
Saturday.
The previous night I had opened Coastal Currents and
reminded everyone just how important the town’s cultural success is to our
all-round regeneration. And this year’s Coastal Currents really has been a
great success.
The weekend before I had opened our eighth seafood and wine
festival which again was a great success. My rather corny speech concluded with
“Hastings – Famously Fresh and Famously Fishy."
The weekend before that I was one of the opening speakers at the International Composers’ Festival at St Mary’s. How pleasurable it was not just to applaud the music and the musicians but the composers too who were with us in the audience.
I have also had a chance this month to appreciate the rich
mix that now makes up our town. I spoke at the start of the Intercultural
Organisation’s football tournament with players from many different backgrounds
participating and I opened the Hope G multicultural older people’s day. And of course September has seen the
start of Black History Month with Afrikaba locally.
And the understanding of the importance of business has also
been to the fore with our vacuum engineering cluster fair and I spoke at the
evening reception for delegates stressing the Hastings – Famously Innovative theme.
It might have been an especially busy September but with so
much positive activity in our town surely an improving future is ours.
