Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green AWARDED NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING

Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green has been awarded £23, 572 through Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants.

The money will contribute to the costs of Hastings Traditional Jack in the Green in 2025.

The traditional calendar custom was reintroduced to Hastings in 1983 by a small group of morris dancer friends, and has since grown to attract around 20,000 people over the May Day Bank holiday weekend each year.

The free local May Day procession and celebration is well-loved and enjoyed by local people, visitors, and folk enthusiasts nationally and worldwide. Over the weekend there is also a full programme of free events, talks, workshops and performances, and some ticketed events, including our popular Saturday night ceilidh.

The huge swell in numbers attending has meant costs have increased dramatically. In addition 2025 is the first year that the committee - run entirely by volunteers - has been handed over the full responsibility and costs of running the Monday West Hill event, previously managed by Hastings Borough Council.

Since 2023 we have actively been building our education and outreach programme, working with schools and community groups to engage more local people in making them aware, and actively participating in our celebration. This year, we are working with more groups including local Ukrainian refugees, Hastings Academy, Eggtooth, Bexhill College and Hastings Cub Scouts, with additional support from the Magdalen and Lasher fund, alongside artists and musicians who include acapella all-female folk group, Rattlebag; and visual artist and researcher Lorna Hamilton-Brown.

We will be running free family-friendly workshops and activities at venues including Hastings Museum, Ore Community Library, the Fishermen’s Museum and Stade Hall. See our website and printed programme for further details.

Although we must grow as an organisation and develop new avenues of funding, we remain very grateful to Hastings Borough Council for their continued support, without which we would face significant challenges. It is very important to note that we will still be working hard to cover many of our costs through selling advertising in our programme, tickets to special events, and by selling merchandise throughout the weekend. We also greatly appreciate the generous donations of our attendees, participants and local businesses - without these, and our team of dedicated volunteers, this event would not be able to take place.

National Lottery Project Grants is the Arts Council’s open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects. The fund supports thousands of individual artists, community and cultural organisations thanks to National Lottery investment.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million for good causes each week, funding arts, heritage, sports, voluntary and charity projects around the UK. Over £43 billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery began in 1994.

Chair Keith Leech said:

We’re delighted with this award, which was made possible thanks to funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England. This is the first year that Jack in the Green is on its own and managing all the events as an independent entity, and it's the first time we have applied for public funding to help us run the weekend. It does mean that various things we were considering cutting can go ahead, and there is some really exciting stuff we can now do. This will make things a lot easier, but please can people keep donating, as it doesn't mean we are out of the financial woods. Putting on such an event for free - properly and safely - does mean there are many things to be paid for.

For more information, please contact: lorna.crabbe@hastingstraditionaljackinthegreen.co.uk

For general information on Jack in the Green, how to become involved as a volunteer or by supporting our event: www.hastingstraditionaljackinthegreen.co.uk

The link to the business supporters page, including advertising: www.hastingstraditionaljackinthegreen.co.uk/business-supporters

About the Arts Council:

Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk

Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. We are also one of the bodies administering the Government’s unprecedented £1.96 billion Culture Recovery Funds. Find out more at www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19.