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 typically occurs during the first week of August and is officially opened on Winkle Island, 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".

Seaboot Race is a race in which each entrant has to run from the start/finish line around a lobster and back, wearing seaboots and a top hat.

Bike Race is another race where the entrant has to ride up the steepest road in the Old Town, using a Butchers Bike in the quickest time possible, without taking their buttocks off the saddle. This event is done in memory of a local fisherman who died during the Great Storm of 1987.

Other events include the Pram Race, Best Dressed Window Competition, the High Street Party, Old Town Film Yearly Show, the Trawler Parade, Pirates Day and the concluding Carnival Procession.

Winning entrants crowned as Miss Hastings (carnival queen) and princesses over the last years are as follows.

Miss Hastings 1999 - Leah Newman with princesses Stephanie Bowers and Elizabeth Taylor.

Miss Hastings 2000 - Leah Newman with princesses Vicky Griffiths and Lisa O'Connell.

Miss Hastings 2001 - Sophie Foster with princesses Amanda Hills and Lucie Hide.

Miss Hastings 2002 - Lucie Hide with princesses Eugenie Demeza and Carrie Skelton.

Miss Hastings 2003 - Krystal Finch with princesses April Hollister, Charlotte Vaughan and Lydia Hall.

Miss Hastings 2004 - Tracy Bryant with princesses Lorna Hollister, Lydia Hall and Lucy Ansell.

Miss Hastings 2005 - Lydia Hall with princesses Lucy Ansell, Amy Fuller and Lisa Jones.

Miss Hastings 2006 - Amy Fuller with princesses Gemmaine Baughurst, Suzanna Milton and Lucie Hide.

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