Festival of fine food and wine is a highlight of the culinary year

The event was organised by Hastings Borough Council. Cllr Kim Forward, deputy leader of the council and lead member for regeneration, who opened the festival on Saturday morning with Hastings mayor Cllr Judy Rogers, explained: “Yet again we’ve had another fantastic fish festival, with some really positive comments received from both visitors and traders. A number of traders sold their entire weekend’s supply of stock on the Saturday, despite the heavy showers we had in the afternoon, and had to replenish their stalls overnight in readiness for Sunday.

“Around 20 000 people came to the Stade last weekend, with visitors from across the UK and beyond joining local residents for the biggest seafood & wine festival we’ve ever had. We even had a London-based company running a coach to the event.

“The music has been fantastic too, with a great selection of musicians performing over the weekend.

“The event has truly established itself as one of the biggest in our calendar, and I’d like to thank everyone involved in organising it, and our many traders and visitors for supporting it.

“Even though we now have to make a small admission charge, we still don’t cover all of our costs, but we consider it a worthwhile investment because of the benefit it brings to our local economy. Few other resorts can have been as busy as we are on the third weekend in September!”