I don't know anything about any festivals in Hastings, but I do know that the best pub in the town is The First In Last Out - known as the FILO - at the top of the Old Town. The Lord Nelson, at the corner of the coast road, where it rounds away and up to Ore, was a ravers' pub many years ago - bikers at the front of the bar, Fats Domino on the juke box, and all the quiet smokers of substances sat in a haze of smoke at the rear of the pub. The landlord, a big chap, kept a buzzard on the back balcony...

I shall be there next Monday, stocking up on fresh fish from Johnny Swann's wet fish shop near the Old Town beach. A pint of prawns from a stall, a pint of beer outside the London Trader, weather permitting, and a stroll along the front, will do me nicely.

Hastings - a great mix of the seedy & tatty, the bohemian and the elegant Georgian.