Hastings does not run on a quiet calendar. Its year is built on a handful of big days — a green man carried through the Old Town and slain on West Hill in May, a harbour of pirates in July, a food and wine festival on the shingle in September, and a torchlit procession that ends in fireworks on the beach in October — with smaller festivals strung between them. This guide runs through the big four, the Battle of Hastings re-enactment up the road, and what else falls where. One caveat applies to everything on the page: dates move, and the organiser is the only source that stays current, so each section ends by pointing you at the people who publish them.
Spring belongs to Jack in the Green, the May Day festival that fills the Old Town across the early-May bank holiday. Summer has Pirate Day in July and Carnival Week, which the tourist board calls a summer highlight, with its procession through the town. Autumn is the heaviest stretch: the Seafood, Wine & Music Festival on the Stade in September, then the Battle of Hastings re-enactment at Battle Abbey and Hastings Bonfire in October, a week apart. Winter carries the Storytelling Festival and the Christmas markets and makers’ fairs that run through December. The tourist board’s major events page keeps the full cycle, but it names the rhythm rather than fixing dates, and several of these festivals publish their dates only a few months ahead.
Jack in the Green is a four-day festival built around the coming of summer, run as a registered charity and widely billed as the UK’s largest celebration of its kind. In 2026 it runs Friday 1 May to Monday 4 May, the May bank holiday. The weekend is Morris dancing and music, and the main procession — filled, in the organisers’ words, with unique characters, dancers, drummers and giants — moves through the streets of the Old Town. On West Hill the Jack is slain to release the spirit of summer. The Monday has a rough shape rather than a timetable: dancers gather for breakfast at St Clement’s Church early, the Jack is released from the Fishermen’s Museum around 10:15, the grand procession climbs All Saints Street and the High Street, and the hill and slaying follow from around midday. Arrive for the procession itself, not for a clock, and get the current programme from the festival’s site, hastingstraditionaljackinthegreen.co.uk.
Pirate Day is a free annual weekend that turns the Old Town, the Stade and the seafront into a harbour full of people in costume. In 2026 it falls on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 July, with some warm-up events on the Friday before. The programme splits into Friday, Saturday and Sunday strands, with children’s and family events alongside ticketed ones — the 2026 Hastings Ball is the festival’s fundraiser. Listings point to the Great Buccaneers Procession on the Sunday, with sea shanties, live music, treasure hunts and markets around it, and the festival holds a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of pirates. The procession day and the record come from listings rather than the festival’s own page, so treat both as approximate and confirm them on hastingspirateday.org. Dressing up is the point, and most of the weekend costs nothing.
The Seafood, Wine & Music Festival takes over the Stade Open Space on 11–13 September 2026, run by Stade Events CIC and set against the Old Town with the fishing beach behind it. Seafood, street food and wine sit beside artisan produce from Sussex and Kent. New for 2026 are themed music days, and listings point to a Northern Soul Friday, a country, western and Americana Saturday, and a jazz, ska and soul Sunday that opens with a Jazz Breakfast, with gates around 10am each day. Those day themes and times come from listings rather than the festival’s own page, so check stadeevents.co.uk before you commit to a day. Under-16s are often free, and tickets sell through the same site.
Hastings Bonfire is the town’s free, ticketless night of fire, run by volunteers of the Hastings Borough Bonfire Society, and in 2026 it falls on Saturday 17 October. The night runs in a set sequence rather than to a clock. The Junior Members’ Procession goes from the Stade to the fire site; societies, drummers and dance bands form on the seafront between Robertson Street and the White Rock Hotel; and the America Ground Ceremony reads the America Ground Proclamation at the entrance to the America Ground. The torches are lit and the Torchlit Procession sets off from Robertson Street, passes the fire site in a loud pyrotechnic set piece, winds around the Old Town and comes back in to Chinese Crackers and bonfire prayers. Then the bonfire is lit, the fireworks go up, this year’s chosen secret effigy is dispatched during them, and the grand finale plays out on Hastings Beach. The society’s own page warns that timings from here become increasingly uncertain, so arrive early, dress for standing around, and take the sequence from hbbs.info.
The Battle of Hastings re-enactment returns to Battle Abbey on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 2026, 10am to 5pm, marking 960 years since the battle and billing itself as the one and only re-enactment. English Heritage puts over 500 reenactors in the headline and hundreds in the description — either way it is a full battlefield rather than a sideshow. The adult from-price shown on the page is £24, and that figure is a from-price for adults: concessions, English Heritage members and child tickets need checking on the English Heritage page, which does not spell them out in the listing. Battle is a short journey out of Hastings, and the abbey and battlefield are covered in Battle Abbey and 1066.
Between the big four sits a fuller programme. The tourist board names Hastings Fat Tuesday — music, parades and parties — Carnival Week with its summer carnival procession, the Storytelling Festival, and the Christmas and winter markets that run through December, but gives no dates for any of them; each festival publishes its own. For the autumn ahead, listings add the Hastings Jazz Festival around 3 October, Hastings Week in mid-October, the Hastings Storytelling Festival around 17–25 October, and the Hastings Embroidery on display at the Town Hall from 21 September to 31 October. Makers’ markets run through the season too, with Tides of Trade on 10–11 October, 1 November and 13 December and the Makers’ Markets at The Yard on 28 November and 12 December, and White Rock Theatre’s Snow White pantomime runs 12 December to 3 January. Treat that whole list as listings rather than promises, and confirm each date through the tourist board’s what’s-on pages or the venue before you plan around it.
The big days test the town’s size. Almost all of them happen on the Old Town and the seafront, where streets narrow to twittens and a shingle front, so the crowds concentrate rather than spread. Book trains and rooms well ahead — accommodation fills for Jack in the Green and bonfire weekend, and the rail line gets busy — and allow more time than the map suggests. Road closures and parking change from event to event and year to year, and none of that is verified for 2026 here, so take event-day detail from Hastings Borough Council and the organiser rather than from memory. For the ordinary-day picture, parking in Hastings covers where to leave the car, the Old Town and the fishing fleet sets the streets, and when to visit sets the season.
Processions reward a spot with room to move behind you. For Jack in the Green, the climb up All Saints Street and the High Street is the procession at its best, but the pavements are thin; the slaying on West Hill is where the whole crowd ends up, so head up in good time. For bonfire, the procession passes the fire site early — the loud set piece — before it winds around the Old Town and returns for the lighting, so you can watch the pass and still get back for the bonfire and fireworks, with the beach giving the finale its space. Dress for standing still in autumn air rather than expecting to keep moving, and carry cash for food and market stalls. Keep children close in any torchlight crowd.
Every event on this page has one keeper of its dates, and the dates move. Jack in the Green is run by a registered charity at hastingstraditionaljackinthegreen.co.uk, the pirate festival lives at hastingspirateday.org, the seafood and wine festival is Stade Events CIC at stadeevents.co.uk, and bonfire night belongs to the Hastings Borough Bonfire Society at hbbs.info. The Battle of Hastings re-enactment is English Heritage’s event, on its what’s-on pages. For the wider programme, the tourist board at visithastings.co.uk is the first stop, then each festival’s own site. Check the organiser before you book a train or pass a date on to anyone.