Hastings Old Town Week
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Hastings Old Town Week is an annual summer event celebrated in the Old Town of Hastings, East Sussex. The Old Town week is officially opened on Winkle Island and during the week events such as concerts, street parties, charity races and Morris Dancing take place. The week ends with the Old Town Carnival procession, which contains 'floats', dancers, majorettes and marching bands and ends with a firework display in the evening.
The carnival was first started in 1968 after Old Town residents felt the original Hastings Carnival should have included the Old Town in its route and decided to set up their own carnival. The Old Town event gradually got more popular and bigger, whilst the Hastings event became less popular and eventually stopped. As a parting gift the Old Town organisers were allowed to title the Carnival Queen "Miss Hastings".
[edit] Events
Seaboot Race - In this event the entrant has to run from the start/finish line around a lobster and back wearing seaboots and a top hat.
Bike Race - In this event the entrant has to ride up the steepest road in the Old Town in the quickest time possible, without taking their buttocks of the saddle. This event is done in memory of a local fisherman who died during the Great Storm of 1987.
Other events include the famous Pram Race, the Best Dressed Window Competition, Grand Procession, the High Street Party as well as the Old Town Film Yearly Show at the wonderful Electric Palace Cinema, the Trawler Parade and the internationally famous Old Town Carnival.
