We’ll be back in 2026

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT….

After another amazing HBTS in 2024 we know you’re keen to hear about plans for our next Festival. Thank you for your amazing loyalty and support.

As you will be aware, the success of each event takes a huge amount of dedicated planning and preparation. Having reached the dizziest of heights working with Sweet Marta, Eddie Martin, Dennis Greave and Mark Feltham in 2024 we’re taking a break in 2025, and will return fully refreshed in 2026.

So sadly no harmonica shenanigans in Brighton & Hove in 2025, but we hope you will be able to lend your support to alternative harmonica related events such as the Broadstairs Blues Bash21st-23rd Feb 2025.

We hope this notice enables you to plan your 2025 calendar accordingly and we will of course miss everybody. We also hope you can join us in 2026, which will be all the more fun, and look forward to making many more happy memories in your company.

With very best wishes,

Richard Taylor, Stuart McKay and all the HBTS Team

Thank You!

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Thank you for all your lovely comments. If you have any feedback, good or grumpy, from this year, or suggestions for future events, please do share them with us through our contact page. Either way we want to hear from you! Meanwhile in other news…

HBTS2024 on your Telly
If you missed our Harmonica For Health Summit on Meridian TV News, you can catch up on ITVX here.

Charity Raffle
Congratulations to all our winners and commiserations if you didn’t strike it lucky this year. Either way we’re all winners in a very real sense, because we raised £1,300 to help provide bedside music care for children in hospital ICUs. That’s a huge jackpot for everyone. Thank you on behalf of Wishing Well Music, all our amazing sponsors and everyone on the HBTS Team. You’re amazing!

Thankyous
Where to begin? The cast list and credits are endless. Basically, if you were there, everything you did made the event worthwhile and a big success, no matter how big or small your involvement. And if you weren’t there, you count too! I’m thinking in particular of our event sponsors, without whom it would be impossible to underwrite everything. All our guest artists have said how much they felt our love and what an incredible group we have at HBTS.

I’d like to pay a special tribute to Matt our sound engineer, our two venue teams at the The Brunswick and The Cornerstone, everyone behind Harmonicas for Health, everyone behind our open mic party, our tutorial workshops, John and Gene for our Tech workshop, Vanessa and Louise for our inaugural Sing Workshop, and of course all our lovely electric Blues Jam friends. Also everyone on our HarmonicaUK and Charity information desks.

YouTube
And always last, but never least, a resounding peal of applause for Russ Turner on our video cameras. Keep an eye on our YouTube Channel and Russ’s Oxharp channel for footage of his year’s event – and please share any favourite items with all your social media friends!

HBTS2025
Collapsing into bed on Saturday night that weary voice was once again heard groaning in the dark, ‘never again!’. And back came the same reply, ‘you always say that’. Thank you to my incredibly patient and lovely wife for her calming support behind the scenes. And thank you to Mattias Bogefors, our Swedish house guest, for his healing hands and karma. I’m off to Australia for a couple of weeks to find some sunshine, stare at a Koala or two, and dribble down my chin. We’ll let you know about HBTS2025 once we’re the right way up again.

Thank you for joining us this year, keep tooting and… tell all your friends!

Richard x

 

 

 

 

 

HBTS 2024 – Official Programme

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Big thanks go to Steve Lee and our friends at Prontaprint Brighton for production of this year’s official programme.

You can download a virtual copy by clicking here or on the cover image shown. Your own souvenir copy will be provided when you check in on Saturday 3rd February at The Cornerstone (Beginners) or The Brunswick (Intermediates/Advanced).

Our weekend’s schedule forms the centre spread, so you can always check here to track the programme. Inside the back cover you will find details of our charity raffle and the work that Wishing Well Music does for children in ICT units. There are also pages featuring our guest artists, event team and sponsors.

 

Charity Raffle – Amazing Prizes!

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Each year Harpin’ By The Sea raises funds for Wishing Well Music, providing music for wellbeing in healthcare settings in the South of England. An important part of Wishing Well’s work involves music-making at the bedside of children in critical care, where recipients can be hospitalised for many months.

How to enter
Just click HERE or scan the QR code with your smart phone camera and you will be taken straight to our RallyUp page. The rest is self explanatory. You can check our stunning list of prizes and choose the amount you wish to sponsor. Your pool of entries increases incrementally the more you donate.  If you are attending HBTS 2024 in person, you can also purchase a good old-fashioned paper raffle ticket for cash and we will add your details to our online database ready for the draw.

The Draw
Our raffle is open to everyone – not just festival attendees. The draw will take place at The Brunswick on Sat 3rd Feb 2024 at 17:00h UK time (GMT). The lucky winners will automatically receive a confirmation email from RallyUp.com

Thank you to our international cast of sponsors
Harpin’ By The Sea would like to thank our event sponsors for their incredible generosity in providing the prizes for our online raffle. Money raised will help the Wishing Well Music charity provide bedside music therapy for children in critical care. For more information and discount codes, be sure to visit our Sponsors page.

Festival Lunch Menu

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Served Sat 3rd Feb at 1.00pm. Please pre-order at registration.

IMPORTANT
Attendees must pre-order and pay for lunch when they arrive for registration in the morning. Please inform a staff member if you suffer form any food allergies or intolerance. Menu

Choose one of the following for just £10.00…

• Chicken Katsu Curry with Rice
• Chili Con Carne with Rice
• Vegan Chili Con Carne with Rice (veg)
• Prawn Masala with Rice
• Mushroom Risotto with Goats Cheese (v) Continue reading

SHOW TICKET BULLETIN

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Our workshop plus two show ticket allocations (couples package) are sold out. We have just one workshop plus one show ticket package left (singles package), so you will have to move fast!

We can say with certainty there won’t be any show tickets left for general release in January. A huge thank you to everyone who has signed up for HBTS 2024. If you haven’t yet committed, please don’t leave it too late!

Harpin’ By The Sea On The Radio

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A huge thank you to all our artists, sponsors, attendees and crew for the fantastic return to our live format at this year’s festival. We enjoyed another sell-out event, welcomed Mark Hummel back to the UK for the first time in over twenty years, held our first Trade Expo, and raised £735 for our chosen charity, Wishing Well Music, providing bedside music therapy for children in critical care.

In addition, we launched our first ever Harmonicas for Health workshop and symposium, which proved to be a popular and humbling new feature to the event programme. Watch this space for news of HBTS 2024 and, in the meantime, visit our YouTube Channel to enjoy coverage of this year’s artists and activities. 

You may be aware that early on Friday morning this year our Festival Producer, Richard Taylor, was already launching proceedings in the company of BBC Radio Sussex reporter Hanna Neter. 

Hanna was challenged by Breakfast Show host Alison Fearns to learn and perform her first ever harmonica tune live on air. Richard and Hanna duly got to work and within half an hour Hanna was playing When The Saints Go Marching In! You can hear what everyone got up to right here…