A world’s first, award-winning deckchairs – not a stripe in sight -, and fish filleting demos by the experts:  just some of the delights on offer at this year’s Hastings Seafood & Wine Festival.

Classroom on the Coast, a project of Hastings Fishermens Local Action Group (FLAG), is to be the world’s first teaching kitchen and classroom at the heart of an MSC Fishery*. Not to be missed are the free ticketed events on offer which include: a fish filleting demonstration by CJ Jackson, director of Billingsgate Seafood Training School; a talk on the thorny issue of fish quotas by Paul Joy, Hastings fisherman and Chair of the Hastings Fishermen’s Protection Society; a showing of ‘Shingle Film’, a short film about beach-launched fishing fleets.

Judging now over of the immensely successful ‘Design a Deckchair’ competition, the winning designs have now been made up and will be proudly on display in the VIP area of the Stade Open Space. If one takes your fancy, you can place an order too!

A welcome arrival in beautiful Winchelsea Beach is the stunningly refurbished restaurant/deli ‘The Ship’, incorporating Rick Stein food hero, Jamie Wickens’ butcher’s. Come and see what they have to offer during their first foray into the Seafood & Wine festival.

Back by popular demand are some old favourites. The festival opens with ‘Walking the Fish’, a colourful, musical parade of paper and withy fish sculptures created by local school children;  cookery demonstrations by acclaimed local chef, teacher and restaurateur Paul Webbe; net making and Stade guided walks; cookery demo and talk by Tom Kime, internationally renowned chef and staunch supporter of the MSC accredited Hastings Fishery, and co-author of ‘Fish Tales’; a different kind of Fishy Tales and seaside songs with master storyteller Kevin Graal in the Children’s Tent; fantastic live music in the entertainment marquee with great beers served there from Hastings Old Town’s First In Last Out micro brewery; the Sunday morning Jazz Breakfast, with Glastonbury and Ronnie Scott’s headliner Liane Carroll.

Then there’s the wine. Sussex has the highest concentration of vineyards in the UK, the soil being similar to that of the Champagne region. Sedlescombe Organic vineyard is the UK’s first established organic vineyard and ‘eco-hero’ Roy Cooke is an advocate and practitioner of biodynamic cultivation. Sedlescombe Organic will be back, alongside other local vineyards, to demonstrate how justifiable is the growing reputation of English wine – and just how good a companion it is to the fantastic food on offer during the weekend.

For more information about the weekend’s programme of events, see:
www.visit1066country.com

For press visits to this event, please contact Jane Ellis on 01424 451113 or jmellis@hastings.gov.uk

* Note to editors:
The Hastings Fishery is described by the MSC as ‘the most perfect fishery in the world’ and is accredited for its sustainably caught Dover sole, mackerel and herring. In January 2011 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall brought the Hastings fishing fleet to national attention in his Channel 4 series ‘Hugh’s Fish Fights’ in which he campaigns to stop the problem of discards at sea and champions sustainable seafood.