Get off the couch and enjoy free entertainment at Hastings museum

There's no excuse for being a couch potato during the summer holidays with the variety of free family events in the local area, including those on offer at Hastings museum.
The giant Iguanodon.restaurant outdoor family theatre performance by Emerald AntThe giant Iguanodon.restaurant outdoor family theatre performance by Emerald Ant
The giant Iguanodon.restaurant outdoor family theatre performance by Emerald Ant

Hastings Borough Council’s (HBC) museum and art gallery has loads of exciting free family events and HBC’s Lead Councillor for Culture, Kim Forward says there’s something for everyone.

“All ages are welcome to join us,” she said.

“We travel the world each week with fantastic stories told by Kevin Graal, or stomp your way into the museum for our special outdoor theatre performance featuring a 35ft Victorian Iguanodon!

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“We are delighted to offer this fantastic free season of events to the community of Hastings. The museum and art gallery has historic collections, architecture, local history, children’s activities and visual art, but these summer activities are really something special, and all free, as is entrance to the museum.”

The events kick off with free family storytelling and craft Tuesdays ‘Here, there and everywhere’ on August 7, 14, 21, 10.30-12noon. Join local storyteller Kevin Graal for an exciting exploration of traditional stories from around the world linked to objects in the museum’s collection. Then take away a creative souvenir of your visit made by your very own hands.

Dinosaur Day featuring The Iguanodon Restaurant, an outdoor family theatre performance by Emerald Ant is on August 22, 10-3pm. Performances start at 11.30 and 2pm.

Cllr Forward said: “Imagine it’s New Year’s Eve 1853, in Crystal Palace Park and a group of leading professors and palaeontologists are holding a sumptuous banquet in an unusual venue; inside the concrete mould of an Iguanodon.

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“Guests will feast on fossil-fuelled fun with a julienne of joviality, and a dessert of dinosaur delight! A highly visual, funny and peculiar, fast moving historical romp of a 35 minute show. The Iguanodon Restaurant is inspired by this extraordinary real-life event, and it takes place inside a massive 35 foot beast!”

“Emerald Ant’s new show inspires audiences in their geological landscape, fossils and local history. Based on events from 1812 to 1860, which saw a rapid growth in scientific discovery, we travel at rollicking speed from Dorset to Sussex and Kent to witness momentous fossil discoveries, and finally to Crystal Palace, where our iguanodon still stands.

“Over an outrageously indulgent feast, the guests; famous dinosaur hunters and pioneering geologists, William Buckland, Gideon Mantell, Mary Anning and Richard Owen, compete over their amazing fossil finds, and wrangle over interpretations: Is it a bird? Or a giant fish? Or maybe an ancient crocodile? They debate questions around extinction and evolution; How come dinosaurs no longer exist? What is the stone beneath our feet telling us about the world and our place in it?”

Free family craft activity all day. Visitors are invited to take a picnic but asked to please take waste home.

Visit: www.hmag.org.uk

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