Good Grief Festival Hastings 2026.
Good Grief Hastings brought people together over the late May Bank Holiday weekend to explore grief, love and loss through creativity, conversation and community. Across four days, hundreds of people came together for talks, workshops, performances, exhibitions, music, storytelling and shared experiences. From sold-out events to quiet moments of reflection, the festival created welcoming spaces where people could connect, remember, create and discover new ways of talking about grief.
This short film captures some of the people, moments and conversations that made Good Grief Hastings so special. Produced by Sussex-based events organisation 18 Hours, in partnership with St Michael’s Hospice, Good Grief Festival CIC and the University of Brighton, Good Grief Hastings formed part of the national Coastal Community and Creative Health research project, exploring how creativity can strengthen wellbeing, reduce isolation and support healthier communities.
We hope this film offers a glimpse into a festival that showed what can happen when creativity, compassion and community come together.