Hurst Festival 2023

Hurst Open Studios welcomes the community

By Annette Street

Hurstpierpoint Open Studios will take place over the weekends of 16th-17th and 23rd-24th September during the Hurst Festival and there will be 25 artists at 13 venues around the village.
Come and meet the artists and view paintings, textiles, stained glass, photography, jewellery, ceramics and sculpture. We’re also supporting an exhibition by Ukrainian artist Alexey Artyukh. There is something for everyone to enjoy and maybe treat yourself, or someone else to a unique piece of artwork.

Look for the blue and white balloons! Find more details online: www.hurstfestival.org/hurst-open-studios Hurst Life spoke to two new exhibitors in the village; Matt Startin, who has recently moved here and Tamila Moiseieva, a Ukrainian who is exhibiting on behalf of Alexey Artyukh:

By Tamila Moiseieva
Alexey Petrovich Artyukh, was born in 1966 in Kiev and in 1999 he was ordained a priest in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He paints in the styles of academic realism and Impressionism. Work in Ukraine is still hindered by financial difficulties, as life has become harder, paintings are not ordered and not bought. So, Alexey can’t sell anything in his country now. Therefore, he has difficulties with feeding his family. We are very grateful to organisers of Open Studio and everyone who helped to show and promote Alexey’s creativity in England, a country where there are many lovers of art and all the beautiful things that exist in this world! I am hoping to sell paintings of Alexey and transfer money to him. This is my goal. Thank you.

By Matt Startin
I originally studied Architecture at the Mackintosh School, part of the Glasgow School of Art, but then found a job into the video games industry as a 3D artist. I have now been making video games for over 25 years and I’m currently an art director at Electronic Arts (EA), a well-known American video game company. I started printmaking back in 2015 when I took a course in traditional etching at BIP printmaking studio in Brighton. Visitors to my studio will see a collection of my aquatint etchings and mezzotint prints and I’ve recently been working with charcoal too. There will also be a few photographic prints for sale. I’ll be working in the studio so people can watch me create a mezzotint plate and I’m happy to talk about the printmaking process to anyone that wants to listen.

Hurst Festival returns this September 2023

By Katherine Jackman, festival manager

Hurst Festival runs between 16th and 30th September: Over 80 events of all kinds over two weeks, right here in the village. More details can be found in the programme or online, where you can also buy tickets: www.hurstfestival.org

To launch the two week arts festival is the community event - Super Sunday - on 17th September, 12noon until 6pm. It is a day of free entertainment, live music, there will be a dog show and a barn dance, as well as stalls for food, crafts, charities and so much more! The bell ringers from Holy Trinity Church will start the annual Treasured Transport Parade at 1pm led by Burgess Hill Marching Band – if you want to be part of it and you have ‘treasured transport’ email: treasured.transport@hurstfestival.org for an entry form.
We will be closing Hurstpierpoint High Street from 10am and filling it with stalls and music and many of our beloved High Street retailers will spill onto the High Street with fun additions such as gin tastings and gingerbread decorating!

Added to these locals will be a smorgasbord of independent traders of all kinds including Village Pizza caravan, Greek Food, East Meets West, Donuts, Ice Creams, Gelato and Crepes! We have plenty of vegan and gluten free options – including the fabulous Pakora – their Bhajias are cooked in a yellow split pea batter, so everyone can enjoy them! Add to this some amazing charity stalls, craft, clothes, book stalls and face painting from Garden Spa.

South Avenue Rec will have the Hurst Festival bar on it, so help support this free community day by buying a cold local beer, wine or even a cocktail. The Rec will have an arena of entertainment and free bouncy slide, football goal game and nerf gun game. Donations please!

We are also delighted to announce a fabulous new addition to Super Sunday: ‘Hufts’ - the new Hurst Festival Dog Show at 1.30pm on the Rec. Also, on Super Sunday in the afternoon, we will be having a large barn dance for everybody on South Avenue Recreation Ground curtesy of the amazing live band and callers - Shenanigans. Let’s all come together to dance and celebrate Super Sunday!

South Avenue Recreation Ground Arena
12noon – 1.30pm Mid Sussex Radio DJ
1-1.30pm Treasured Transport Parade
1.30-2.30pm Super Sunday Dog Show
2.30-3pm Hurstpierpoint Gymnastics Club Demonstration
3.15-4pm Barn Dance for all with Shenanigans
4-4.15pm Mid Sussex Radio DJ
4.15-5pm Barn Dance for all with Shenanigans
5-6.30pm Mid Sussex Radio DJ

Village Garden Stage
12noon-2pm DJ Emz
2-3pm Voxy Music
3.30-5pm Open Mic
5-6pm DJ Emz

Hurst Festival September 2023

By Katherine Jackman, Festival manager

We are excited to bring you our latest programme for Hurst Festival 2023 – our 19th year! As always, we have the ever-popular Hurst open studios, cinema in the garden, live band nights, blues, soirees, children’s shows, Hurst Players theatre, talks, wellbeing events and much more. Stephen Grant returns to compere the traditional Friday night comedy nights and bring us the fabulous new and up and coming comedians that we are so proud to have in our village.

We have three large Saturday night events for your pleasure: The first Saturday, 16th September, is Absolute Bowie, Winners of the National Tribute Music Awards, with a full live band for you in Holy Trinity church.
The second Saturday, 23rd September, we are pleased to announce that Mid Sussex Sinfonia will be in concert and on the last Saturday we have a fabulous Motown Party for you with the amazing live singers All that Soul bringing true soul and party vibes to our community!

We are also delighted to announce a fabulous new addition to our Super Sunday community event on the afternoon of 17th September, ‘Hufts’ - the new Hurst Festival Dog Show. To add to the excitement, we are very pleased to have secured Brigadier Humphrey Portleroy Trotter and Judge Janey – two extremely experienced Official Judges to oversee proceedings at the Arena on South Avenue Recreation Ground.

Also, on Super Sunday in the afternoon, we will be having a large Barn Dance for everybody on South Avenue Recreation Ground courtesy of the amazing live band and callers ‘Shenanigans.’ Remember on Super Sunday the Hurst Festival bar on the Recreation ground helps pay for all the free entertainment on the day so please support our bar. Indeed, at all of our events the income from the bar ensures that the festival is able to continue and helps us keep ticket prices low and provide the free entertainment – so please don’t bring your own alcohol to events.

Next year will be our 20th anniversary year and we will be inviting all our old favourites to perform – do let us know if there is anyone you would love to see again. We look forward to seeing you all during the two weeks in September – book tickets asap! www.hurstfestival.org As a registered Charity Hurst Festival relies on our brilliant team of volunteers – if you wish to help out during Hurst Festival or before, please contact us at admin@hurstfestival.org.