Hastings Old Town Carnival Week - Part One!

This past week has been an incredibly busy one for me! It's been the Old Town Carnival Week in Hastings and therefore lots of fun has been had by all! It's such a brilliant week, everyone gets involved to make the various events a success and it's a great excuse to get together with friends, old and new, and meet up with family too. Plus every event raises money for local charities so it's a win, win, win situation!

Towards the beginning of the week was the Tug-of-War, where lots of the pubs in the Old Town get their burliest teams together in a contest where the strongest team wins! The Filo won for the men's team, well done to you, and to everyone who competed!

Here's my new favourite dress! It's one of those lovely dresses that has a nice full skirt that floats when I twirl and It's from Peacocks - I grabbed in the sale for a bargainous £10!

I explored some of the hidden and beautiful passages in the Old Town with my mum as we had a nosey in some of the open gardens. There are some lovely little secret treasures stowed away in some of the little passages and back streets in that part of town.

Then there was the beach concert. It goes on for a few days and showcases some local favourite bands - luckily the weather was brilliant!

The view of the fishing fleet from the harbour arm.

Down by the sea... my cheeks are already looking a little rosey here, silly fool that I am, forgot to put sun cream on!

patiently waiting for his owner to come out of the antique shop...

I love the little Courthouse Street fun day...

Where else is there a piano in the street that passersby can randomly play! A couple came along, and the lady played "Happy Birthday" tune to her partner as it was his birthday, twas a lovely moment! Then this guy came along and played some amazing ditties.

The Courthouse Street fun day is concluded with the Seaboot Race, where people have to race the length of the street in fishermen's waders!

One of the regular entrants, and a local fisherman, reaching the finish line.

After the seaboot race has finished there is the Old Town Auction... Local businesses and shops all donate items which are then auctioned off to raise money for charities. I got myself a beautiful gold-framed oval mirror for £15! I also got a (very, very, very early) Christmas present for my dad - a trip out in a beautiful commercial fishing boat with a fisherman guide :)

Shipwrecked! Pirate-Themed Shop Display Competition

As part of Hastings Carnival Week 2010, all the shops in the old town got involved in a "best dressed window" competition... the theme - Shipwrecked! The winning shop recieve the Babs Muggridge Memorial Trophy. I was surprised and astounded by the effort put in by some of the shop owners. Check out the photos of the hopefuls, I think my favourite is the window display below...

Penbuckles - stockists of local wine, cheese, beers, ciders and and other locally sourced food and drink. I love the wine cork beach, which the shop turned into a "guess the number of corks in the window" competition.

Judges - totally organic bakery and my first port of call on my walk to work. They sell the most amazing chocolate brownies I've ever tasted (made from Green and Blacks chocolate), the best olives, the best soups, the best scotch eggs... there's a theme here!

The window of an interiors shop - shipwrecked barbies and cindys!

Antiques Warehouse - one of my favourite antique shops in the old town: the antiques and furniture were at one point filling every available space in the huge old house from the basement to the attic. I loved climbing up the rickety stairs to the top floors to find a treat around every corner.

The shipwreck themed window for the (relatively) new shop to take the place of the much loved Butlers Emporium, they sell some gorgeous things, and I love that they have kept the old apothacary style cabinets to display their stock on.

Love the anchor necklaces in a jewellery shop on George Street.

I don't know about you but this skull-faced pirate is really quite disturbing!

This window display blew my mind! It belongs to the Dolls House shop on George Street. The level of effort was amazing, the whole window was transformed into a shipwrecked island, complete with a (real, and fully functioning) water feature pool!

The huuuge treasure map in the window of The Drgaon Bar on George Street.

Part of the display for the shop Equilibrium, including pirate booty, sand, coins, pirate outfits, treasure chests and pirate ships.

Bebe Jour, the shop with clothes and treats for little ones also got involved with the competiton, with more pirate outfits, treasure chests and an inflatable palm tree.

Even the bath-time goods shop, Soak, got stuck in!

But the winning shop was Nelsons House Antiques! Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of their window display, but, you can find the photos from the best dressed window competition here.

Pirate Day - Hastings: World Record Amounts of Pirates!

Well, it's official... I am part of a Guinness World Record! The largest number of pirates in one place. As part of the annual pirate day event in Hastings Old Town, and due to the overwhelming success of last year's event, the organisers decided to go for the record. I was part of it all and so were an astonishing 6166 other swashbucklers! That's also not including the 400 people that left the record attempt area before the allotted time was up, and the thousands of people that could not be allowed into the area as it was so full! There were easily at least 8000 pirates and the queue to be counted blocked the main road and continued back into Rock'a'Nore...

There were some pretty impressive costumes, and I was amazed at just how many people turned up and got involved in the pirate themed fun! It made me quite proud of my town, and I love it when everyone joins in on a big scale with special events. The pirate fun started mid-morning, and, for some of the older rum-swilling pirates, went on well into the early hours of the morning!

There were some Pirates of the Caribbean look-a-likes that performed throughout the day with sword fights and posed for photos. The Johnny Depp AKA Captain Jack Sparrow look-a-like was really rather good, he could quite easily have passed as the real deal! I bumped into the look-a-like that evening (out of his Jack Sparrow costume) and troubled him for a photo... (please excuse my pirate beard stubble... I think I get a little bit too into it all!)

View of the world record pirate "holding pen" from the West hill

Check out some of my photos from the day!

On Friday the 6th of August.... Ye Be A Pirate! Arggh!

Last year, as part of Hastings Carnival Week, the Old Town held a pirate day. It was an absolutely huge success and the streets in the Old Town were full of swashbucklers and much fun was had by all! So, this year, on Friday 6th August will be the second Pirate Day in Hastings Old Town, and to make it bigger and better, the organisers are going for a world record. Yup! The Guinness world record for the most amount of pirates in one place (currently at around 1700 people).

Last year Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbosa and Will Turner re-enacted scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean with sword fights and all, and they will be back again this year. There will be children's entertainment in George Street including: hair braiding, face painting, treasure hunting and musicians.

At 1pm follow the sound of the drums to the beach where the Guinness World Record attempt will take place by the Lifeboat house. Followed by the pirate procession at 2pm that starts at the lifeboat house, finishing up at the end of the High street, led by Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbosa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan. After the procession there will be a piratical barbecue accompanied by sea shanties. Needless to say, the Pirate Day will be the highlight of Carnival week and I cannot urge you all enough to don your best eye-patches, swords, pistols, tricorn hats, bandanas and parrots and get yourself into Hastings Old Town and join in with the piratey fun!

So, no matter who you are, no matter where you are...

on Friday 6th August...

You are a pirate!