Following a hugely successful event on 23 June to close Refugee Week in Hastings, organiser Polly Gifford looks back on eight years of Sanctuary Festival.
Things rarely end up where you think they will. Back in 2017, Sanctuary Festival – which began as the Picnic by the Lake – was intended as a one-off event. Hastings had just joined the City of Sanctuary movement and we wanted to make a public act of welcome for the people who were soon to arrive in the town through the recently established Syrian Resettlement Programme. I had been involved in local group Hastings Supports Refugees since 2015, which had focused on sending aid to the Calais Jungle. As the descendent of Jewish refugees, I was appalled by the treatment of people fleeing war and persecution and heartbroken by images of the body of 2-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on a beach in Turkey. Setting up Hastings Community of Sanctuary (spearheaded by Felicity Laurence) was an acknowledgement that we needed to engage with our own community around this issue, as well as supporting those over the Channel, and I wanted to contribute.
We had intended a modest event to kick off our fundraising but were contacted by Ashburham Place near Battle offering us their site for free. I’ll admit that I hadn’t been there and thought it was a bar or hotel rather than a beautiful country estate! It was the perfect location for a festival. I had worked in the arts in Hastings for many years and knew how much goodwill there was towards refugees among the creative community in the town. The vision was to put on a really high quality programme and weave the message of sanctuary for all throughout the event. Having survived so much trauma, we wanted our new neighbours to enjoy the day alongside everyone else, rather than having a light shone on their experiences.
About 500 people attended that first festival in 2017, which steadily grew over the following two years thanks to headliners like Liane Carroll, poet John Hegley and guest curator Gwyneth Herbert. We owe huge thanks to Ashburnham Place for their wholehearted support, and to the many people who gave their time for free in those first years. As our ambitions grew, so did the costs of staging the event, so we found funding from The National Lottery and others to ensure that all the donations made went to the cause not to the costs.
The pandemic forced us online in 2020, and when we all emerged again, the festival found a new home (and a new name) in 2021 at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. It felt right to come into the centre of the town making the event much more accessible, and to be part of a renewed commitment by Hastings Museum to work for and with local communities, that led to them becoming a Museum of Sanctuary in 2024. They have been brilliant partners, as have the many community groups and organisations who animate the festival through stalls and activities.
Another important development has seen the festival increasingly becoming a platform for refugees and people seeking sanctuary as artists, performers and organisers. In the words of one of our long-time collaborators Emma Joliffe,
“I think it’s got better and better year on year, especially in the sense that rather than being something ‘by’ the Hastings community ‘for’ the refugee community, it now feels much more like we are all one community, making something together.”
Eight years on, Refugee Week in Hastings has a packed programme of events, many of them commissioned and coordinated by The Refugee Buddy Project. Several local schools celebrate the week and support across the town is high, in contrast to the hostile environment perpetuated by those in power. Sanctuary Festival is taking a break next year, having brought thousands of people together and raising thousands of pounds. Thank you to everyone who has been part of it – you have helped ensure that Hastings really is a Community of Sanctuary.
Polly Gifford is Co-Chair of Hastings Community of Sanctuary