Beer and Music Festival canned for 2021… ‘We want to come back strong’ in ’22 say organisers

There will be no Beer and Music Festival on Hastings again this summer.

This afternoon Hastings Round Table, the organisers of the popular event announced that the financial risk to the organisation is simple too great.

A spokesman for Hastings Round Table said: “Many people have messaged us and asked the million dollar question……. ‘is it on this year?’

Hastings Round Table is made up of volunteers who ensure that every single of profit from the event is given back to charitable organisations and local causes within Hastings and St Leonards.

The organisation’s said: “Many local people have benefitted either directly or indirectly from the money raised and without the festival we have been unable to help many people this last year. This is why our decisions around holding of the festival are incredibly difficult.

“We give it our all, we work day and night for months to make sure we bring you nothing but the best weekend Hastings has to offer. But – and there sadly has to be a but – last year we were all locked down for good reason. This year, things are brighter, the restrictions have eased with many things seemingly heading back to normal but coronavirus still hasn’t left us. The festival always falls on the first weekend in July, and the government is not announcing until the end of June whether they will allow mass gatherings. This simply does not allow us anywhere near the time needed to organise the event, if we went ahead and invested in putting on an event between July and October with tickets sold, the financial risk to us should there be a local or national spike in Coronavirus cases causing an immediate stop to any events, would be too great.”

“The government is not underwriting Covid cancellation insurance and Hastings Borough Council is not permitting any mass gatherings until after July 31st which means, sadly, we just cannot go ahead with an event this summer.”

This year’s event would have been the 40th: “We had great plans, but so did many other people with weddings, birthdays and many other celebrations that have had to be postponed.

“We want to come back strong, we want the bells and whistles and we definitely want you all there, so please put this date in your diary – June 29th to July 2nd 2022 for our belated 40th celebration of Hastings Beer and Music Festival at The Oval, Hastings.” said the spokesman.

“It’s going to be a very special event, we genuinely hope you all understand and be sure to buy tickets when they come on sale which will be much earlier than we typically release them.”

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