Welcome to Hurst Life’s Hurst Festival event page. Here you will find our most recent information for the two week September festival.

A registered charity, Hurst Festival was conceived in 2004 by a merry band of friends over dinner, impressed by the wealth of talent in our village. It has one aim; to provide people with two weeks of enjoyment in September during which we can meet each other, experience something new and feel connected to our community.

See also, Hurst Festival

By Susan Eskdale, Festival Manager

We are now days away from the start of Hurst Festival, two weeks packed with lots of great entertainment: music, theatre, film, exhibitions, talks, walks and workshops. Some events have already sold out, to see which still have tickets available, either call into the Festival box office at the Players theatre on Saturdays 10am – 12noon or go to www.hurstfestival.org/events/ to book.

If you aren’t off to Wembley to see Oasis, love their music but not the ticket price, you may be in luck, there could still be some tickets left for Oasis 2ribute, the Festival’s opening gig on Saturday 13th September. They promise to provide “the ultimate Oasis gig experience,” and having sold out a recent Donnington gig they have honed their sound and promise a great evening.

All artwork submitted to the brochure cover competition will be on show in the windows of Lyona, thanks to the support of Rob and Rachael. Pop along to see the work of the talented competition entrants. We have two great ‘free’ events offering entertainment for people of all ages; the always popular Super Sunday 12noon – 6pm on 14th September. I can now confirm that there will be workshops delivered by AudioActive – www.audioactive.org.uk – who have been running Beats & Bars sessions at Court Bushes since July, everyone welcome.

We will be entertained by singers from St Lawrence school, Mid Sussex Radio and Made in the Shade. Additionally, the winning cover artist Ruby Clemmans and runners up Archie McDougall and Nora Sartin will be awarded their prizes, so please come along to cheer them on.

As usual there will be an exciting range of stalls including great food and drink offers along with the Festival bar, your support of the bar helps to fund the Festival. Our second free offer is the Festival Pirate event at Court Bushes, 2pm – 4pm Saturday 27th September.

Everyone is welcome to be entertained by The Captain’s Beard (www.bit.ly/3UHUvYF) and Mid Sussex Radio, to join in some Pirate related fun, there will also be fabulous food to purchase and a paid bar. We can’t wait to see you…very soon!

The Watoto Children’s Choir from Uganda is currently on a 3-month UK tour, where they are set to perform to nearly 100,000 people in churches, schools and community spaces across the nation. In years gone by they have performed for Her Majesty The Queen, US Presidents and countless governments in parliaments across the globe, sharing their stories of hope through song and dance. The Watoto Children’s Choir has recently released a new album ‘Better Days - There Is Hope’.

The Watoto Children’s Choir will be performing in a free concert this month, taking place at Holy Trinity Church, Hurstpierpoint on 24th May at 6.30pm.

Executive Director of Watoto UK Andrew White says: “We are delighted to continue the UK tour in Hurstpierpoint, as we seek to raise awareness of the incredible work of Watoto in caring for vulnerable women and placing the orphans in families across Uganda and South Sudan.
”Other than going to Africa yourself, what better way to learn about all the good work Watoto is doing, than through this heartwarming, musical performance. The proceeds made from the album will help Watoto continue to provide vulnerable children with an education, medical care, a safe place to call home, and most of all, the love of a family.”