Coastal Currents Festival

Events will be organised in Bexhill, Hastings, and Rye as part of the month-long Coastal Currents festival, which runs from September 1 to 30.

The arts festival, which is supported by Hastings Borough Council, Rother District Council, East Sussex County Council and the Arts Council, will feature attractions from the static to the dramatic.

Coastal Currents is set to kick off with a bang on September 1, when St Mary-in-the-Castle will host a showcase of puppetry by Idolrich, a preview of the Electric Palace's season of female directors, and a private view of the SoCo gallery.

And Claremont studios will be launching their opening event at 12 Claremont at 7.50pm.

The more-streamlined event will focus more on visual art this year, with artists taking centre stage at a number of Open Studios, supported by The Roost Group, over the weekends of September 3 and 10 in Rye, September 10 and 17 in Hastings and September 17 to 24 in Bexhill.

The ever-popular street theatre is primed to stun pedestrians on September 8 and 29. The festivities feature audience participation act Allegro Barbaro and Circo Rumbaba's The Dress Circle respectively.

The Glyndebourne Opera House will also be performing a series of arias in the town centre on September 29. And Jamboree will present a spectacular acrobatics show, complete with music and comedy, at Hastings Castle from September 8 to 10.

Bexhill will be featuring a number of exhibitions by local artists, amongst which will be Boyd Webb's Queue, a life-size photographic mural to be shown at the De La Warr Pavilion.

And Rye will be welcoming free family entertainment to the Gun Garden for its Street Theatre Festival on September 18 from midday.

Festival manager John Knowles said: "We're all about re-imaging the area and sending positive messages out about our towns.

"We do a huge job in letting people know there's art down here and it's on their doorstep if they want to experience it. Culture can be a positive and life-changing experience."

l For a full list of Coastal Currents events, log on to www.coastalcurrents.org.uk, pick up a brochure from Rye and Hastings Information Centres, or call John Knowles on 717464.