Jack in the Green Festival

Every May Bank Holiday weekend, Hastings hosts the Jack in the Green festival, a pagan-inflected May Day celebration centred on a procession led by a man entirely hidden inside a tall construction of living foliage and flowers. The Jack — a figure with ancient folkloric roots across northern Europe — is accompanied by hundreds of costumed participants, musicians, and the Green Man's attendants.

The procession starts on the seafront and winds through the town to the castle, where the Jack is ceremonially "slain" to release the spirit of summer. The event draws crowds from across the south of England and has become one of the defining annual spectacles of Hastings. If you happen to be in town on the May Bank Holiday weekend, the festival is unmissable.

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A story
The original Jack in the Green was a May Day tradition recorded in 18th-century London: chimney sweeps would build elaborate leaf and flower constructions around themselves and parade through the streets as a way of collecting tips. The tradition died out in most places but was revived in Hastings in 1983 and has grown into one of the most unusual folk festivals in southern England.

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