Hastings Jack in the Green
One of England's most spectacular May Day folk revivals, this four-day festival sees a giant leaf-covered Jack lead a thundering procession of Morris sides, giants and drummers through Hastings Old Town before being slain on West Hill to release the spirit of summer.
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"For 16 September days, hundreds of artists and makers open studios, homes and galleries across the Lewes District villages from Lewes to Seaford, Newhaven and the surrounding countryside in its 32nd year as the South East's most accessible open art festival."
Artwave Festival
"One of the earliest events of the Sussex bonfire season sends costumed societies and burning torches through a pretty Wealden village high street."
Mayfield Bonfire
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Thirty specialist nurseries gather at Christopher Lloyd's legendary experimental garden for a weekend of rare plants, short plantsmanship talks at the stalls and famous cake."
Great Dixter Autumn Plant Fair
"This small Wealden village keeps the old Sussex tradition alive with a torchlit procession, costumed marchers and a village bonfire and fireworks."
Northiam Bonfire
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Six rival bonfire societies stage torch-lit processions, burning effigies, and fireworks through the streets of Lewes on the 5th in what is widely regarded as the UK's most spectacular and defiant Bonfire Night tradition."
Lewes Bonfire Celebrations
"Six rival bonfire societies fill the narrow streets with blazing torches, burning crosses and exploding effigies in the wildest Fifth of November spectacle in the world."
Lewes Bonfire Night Celebrations
✦ Weird and Wonderful"The folk family behind sixty years of Towersey start again on the Claydon Estate, the same dances and singarounds in a new Buckinghamshire field."
Found Festival
"A friendly small scale singing festival in the Surrey countryside where everyone learns a cappella harmonies entirely by ear and ends the weekend performing them around a campfire."
SingFest
"Organised by the community group The Olney Group, this annual display by an award-winning pyrotechnics company draws the whole market town together on the Sunday nearest bonfire night, with funfair rides and food stalls."
Olney Town Fireworks
"One of England's oldest surviving charitable customs, this Easter Monday distribution of bread, cheese, and twin-stamped biscuits from the Old Workhouse on Sissinghurst Road commemorates the legendary 12th-century conjoined Chulkhurst twins who bequeathed their land to the village poor."
Biddenden Dole
"A family May Day weekend at a Tudor castle with maypole dancing demonstrations and participation, an interactive Green Man play on the castle forecourt, and a traditional tug of war."
Hever Castle May Day Weekend
"One of England's oldest unbroken Morris traditions, three Bampton sides dance through the streets from early morning until dusk on Spring Bank Holiday Monday, accompanied by fiddle and pipe and tabor."
Bampton Morris Dancing