To celebrate the National Year of Reading, award-winning children’s author Piers Torday (The Last Wild) will be sharing his latest story, Books According to Dog and Owl, with stunning illustrations from Tim Smart...

featuring Books According to Dog and Owl

The magic of stories with Piers Torday

The magic of stories with Piers Torday @ Hastings Library

featuring Books According to Dog and Owl

Hastings Library

Kester Sheridan

The Norman Quest

The Norman Quest @ Downs Farm Community Centre

Downs Farm Community Centre

Join bestselling author Dorothy Koomson for an evening exploring her gripping new thriller The Quiet Girls, a story of secrets, danger and a prestigious boarding school where a teacher is dead and a pupil is missing...

The Quiet Girls

Dorothy Koomson

White Rock Theatre

As the nights draw in and the season of Samhain approaches, Kate Corkery invites you to gather for an evening of spellbinding stories from Irish folklore. At this time of year, the veil between the human world and the Otherworld is said to be thin, and strange encounters become possible. Come and le

As the nights draw in and the season of Samhain approaches, Kate Corkery invites you to gather for an evening of spellbinding stories from Irish folklore. At this time of year, the veil between the human world and the Otherworld is said to be thin, and strange encounters become possible. Come and let Kate entertain and thrill you with atmospheric tales from the other side.

Kate Corkery is an inte

Kate Corkery: Stories From the Other Side

As the nights draw in and the season of Samhain approaches, Kate Corkery invites you to gather for an evening of spellbinding stories from Irish folklore. At this time of year, the veil between the human world and the Otherworld is said to be thin, and strange encounters become possible...

Stories from the Other Side

Kate Corkery

Kate Corkery: Stories From the Other Side @ The Horse & Groom

As the nights draw in and the season of Samhain approaches, Kate Corkery invites you to gather for an evening of spellbinding stories from Irish folklore. At this time of year, the veil between the human world and the Otherworld is said to be thin, and strange encounters become possible. Come and le

The Horse & Groom

Hear from Zena Edwards, a writer, poet performer and educator whose 30 year career explores storytelling, environmental poetics and urban resilience. Founder of Poets Built It and the Nature Persists Poetry Project, she is a leading EcoPoet whose advocacy includes work with Culture Declares and Juli

Hear from Zena Edwards, a writer, poet performer and educator whose 30 year career explores storytelling, environmental poetics and urban resilience. Founder of Poets Built It and the Nature Persists Poetry Project, she is a leading EcoPoet whose advocacy includes work with Culture Declares and Julie's Bicycle. An interdisciplinary artist, she has collaborated with creatives including Theaster Gat

Zena Edwards

Hear from Zena Edwards, a writer, poet performer and educator whose 30 year career explores storytelling, environmental poetics and urban resilience...

Hear from Zena Edwards, a writer, poet performer and educator whose 30 year career explores storytelling, environmental...

Zena Edwards:

Zena Edwards: @ Durbar Hall, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery

Hear from Zena Edwards, a writer, poet performer and educator whose 30 year career explores storytelling, environmental poetics and urban resilience. Founder of Poets Built It and the Nature Persists Poetry Project, she is a leading EcoPoet whose advocacy includes work with Culture Declares and Juli

Hastings Museum & Art Gallery

Join festival Patron Thomas Taylor as he reveals the inspiration for Malamander, and his acclaimed seaside mystery series set in Eerie-on-Sea, where monsters lurk beneath the pier, child detectives Herbert Lemon and Violet Parma are on the case, and adventure is never far away...

Eerie-on-Sea

Thomas Taylor

Thomas Taylor @ Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Hastings

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Hastings

Explore haptic technology through their music

This event introduces haptic vests, wearable devices that translate music into vibration, offering audiences an alternative sensory experience and expanding access for d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent attendees...

Sarah Jane Morris and Trio and Deaf Rave

Sarah Jane Morris and Trio and Deaf Rave @ White Rock Theatre

Explore haptic technology through their music

Join award winning Syrian author and illustrator Nadine Kaadan as she reads her wonderfully funny book The Jasmine Sneeze, a magical tale about Haroun the cat, his love of sunny Damascus courtyards and...

Nadine Kaadan

Nadine Kaadan @ Hastings Library

Join award winning Syrian author and illustrator Nadine Kaadan as she reads her wonderfully funny book The Jasmine Sneeze, a magical tale about Haroun the cat, his love of sunny Damascus courtyards and...

Join us for a colourful, family friendly workshop where you can create something bright and imaginative to bring along and show the crowds at our Children’s Day parade...

Drop-in workshop

Carnival Arts Family Workshop

Carnival Arts Family Workshop @ Isabel Blackman Centre

Isabel Blackman Centre

As her father’s dementia progressed, Bev Lee Harling gathered tales from his vivid memories of working life in the family foundry in Elephant and Castle – cobbled yards, molten liquid and the smell of burnt metal she remembered from childhood...

Things I Know and Things I Don't

Bev Lee Harling

Bev Lee Harling @ The Stables Theatre

Things I Know and Things I Don't

Stables Theatre & Arts Centre

The award winning illustrator returns to present three Gruffalo stories including the brand new Gruffalo Granny.

Patron of Hastings Storytelling Festival, Axel Scheffler returns to the White Rock Theatre with a special family event celebrating the world of The Gruffalo. Axel will read The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and the brand‑new Gruffalo Granny, published in 2026...

A special family event with the beloved Gruffalo illustrator

Axel Scheffler: Gruffalo Stories with Gruffalo Granny

Doors: 1:30pm Start time: 2pm Patron of Hastings Storytelling Festival , Axel Scheffler returns to the White Rock Theatre with a special family event celebrating the world of The Gruffalo . Axel will read The Gruffalo , The Gruffalo’s Child and the brand‑new Gruffalo Granny , published in 2026. This warm and joyful session features live illustration , gentle humour and behind‑the‑scenes insights i

Axel Scheffler: Gruffalo Stories with Gruffalo Granny @ White Rock Theatre

The award winning illustrator returns to present three Gruffalo stories including the brand new Gruffalo Granny.

Children’s Day returns with stories, puppets, music and a Gruffalo themed parade including a special guest, Tor Freeman, invited by Axel Scheffler, alongside Pirate Gem from CBeebies with her Swashbuckling Adventure show...

Children's Day

Children's Day @ The Stade

Children’s Day returns with stories, puppets, music and a Gruffalo themed parade including a special guest, Tor Freeman, invited by Axel Scheffler, alongside Pirate Gem from CBeebies with her Swashbuckling Adventure show...

Hastings Storytelling Festival

What's on

The magic of stories with Piers Torday · featuring Books According to Dog and Owl

The Norman Quest · Kester Sheridan

Dorothy Koomson · The Quiet Girls

Kate Corkery · Stories from the Other Side

Zena Edwards · Hear from Zena Edwards, a writer, poet performer and educator whose 30 year career explor…

Thomas Taylor · Eerie-on-Sea

Sarah Jane Morris and Trio and Deaf Rave · Explore haptic technology through their music

Nadine Kaadan · Join award winning Syrian author and illustrator Nadine Kaadan as she reads her wonderful…

Carnival Arts Family Workshop · Drop-in workshop

Bev Lee Harling · Things I Know and Things I Don't

Axel Scheffler: Gruffalo Stories with Gruffalo Granny · A special family event with the beloved Gruffalo illustrator

Children's Day · Children’s Day returns with stories, puppets, music and a Gruffalo themed parade includin…