For the first time in 26 years, the Round Tables of Hastings, Battle and Bexhill will not be organizing, the Hastings Beer and Music Festival in Alexandra Park, as a result this event will not be going ahead this year.

From humble beginnings based at the lower end of Alexandra Park, where the bands played from the back of an articulated lorry, and the beer was sold from a small tent in the corner of the park; the event grew from year to year. In the late 1990’s, due to extensive ground work, the Festival was moved to the larger area of the tennis lawns near Dordretch Way, this gave the opportunity to grow even bigger due to the better and larger facilities. The musical line up in those days was made up of aspiring local bands mixed with some of the leading tribute bands in the country.

Even in early 2000 the committee recognized the need for a slight change from a pure Beer Festival and took the gamble in 2003 of investing in higher profile original bands such as Suzi Quatro, Alvin Stardust, Tony Hadley, Showwaddy, Toyah and Bad Manners. This proved very successful as it attracted a wider clientele and laid foundations for Hastings to be the venue for some of the leading acts in the UK, if not the world. In 2005, organizational skills and ambitions of the organizers was to be tested to its full when Keane was announced to play at the Beer Festival leading a musical landmark in support of St Michaels Hospice. The events success relies on a close relationship with all Multi agencies, Police, Ambulance, St John Ambulance, Fire Brigade, Health and Safety, Licensing, Security and the Council. Behind the scenes, the multi agencies had huge concerns about crowd safety and the ability of the event organizers to hold an event for 7,000 people and so in their opinion this even was not to go ahead

The organizers, most of whom dedicate about five years to the event, exercise a ‘shadowing’ programme where key positions always has a number 2 learning the role, thus giving the maximum opportunity for continuity of managing that role from year to year with specific multi agencies and major suppliers. The organizers see themselves as event management specialists that hold responsible jobs outside of the Festival whose passion is credibility and providing a secure event for the people of Hastings and the surrounding area. It was the credibility and experience of the committee that helped quash any concerns from the agencies about the event and so the green light was given-  but it came at a cost. The infrastructure, especially security and arena costs rose by £30,000 overnight but it put Hastings on the map for being a venue for premier bands in the south east.

 With careful control of the tickets, where local people had priority over distant applications (despite later problems with Ebay,) the event received 14,000 applications for 7,000 tickets within 1 day after being advertised in the Hastings Observer. The Local band was responsible for raising over £100,000 in an hour, with most of the funds going to St Michaels Hospice, and attracted many families to a very safe and warm atmosphere at Alexandra Park. The following year, Status Quo ‘popped in’ on their world tour and despite constant issues with controlling their sound engineers during their act it was a huge success with 6,000 people ‘strutting their stuff’ to ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’..

 Perhaps, raising the expectations of both the people of Hastings and the various Multi agencies could be the demise of the Beer festival.  In 2007, the event could not attract a headline act and so it was decided to have a back to basics event by reducing entrance charges and using high quality tribute bands back up by local groups. Unfortunately the event coincided with dreadful weather, resulting in this event making a loss -  the first time in its history! Whilst the weather can be blamed, the committee accepted the event failed to draw enough interest from the people of Hastings for the first time in its history but with the cost of an infrastructure designed for  7,000 people!