A good Bank Holiday

Traders who last week had been reporting a disastrous season made hay while the Bank Holiday sun shone.

So did the Bank Holiday crowds with no seafront parking to be had at peak times between South Cliff and the top of Galley Hill, the promenades and beach were crowded with sun-seekers.

While wind-surfers scudded past on the ever-present Bexhill breeze, Saturday afternoon's falling tide revealed areas of hard sand which provided eager children with the age-old excitement of castle-building.

That same Bexhill breeze sent barbecue smells wafting enticingly off the beach and among the throng of promenading public.

Queues formed for ice creams, cooling drinks, buckets and spades and - scarcely a 2007 "must-have" - sunglasses.

Colonnade and Sovereign Light Caf, promenade kiosk and Mistral beer garden displayed scenes of animation rarely witnessed since the drought-summer of 2006.

Sunshades billowed over customers sitting at tables in the Waterfront's seaside garden.

Throughout the start to a sunny weekend the public turned out in droves, making the most of what many evidently feared would be a brief respite from the gloom of the "lost" summer of 2007.

Fragments of conversation as trippers explored Bexhill were indicative of the mood of the moment.

"Oh look! The tide's right out. What a lovely town'¦!"

And so it was for those reading on the shingle behind their wind-breaks, flying kites or playing ball games.

The hub of it all was the De La Warr Pavilion, basking in the sun and in the success of yet another Jour de Fete.

Report and pictures: page 12.

Lift-off was immediate. Those terrace and balcony deckchairs not only taken by sun-seekers sipping pavilion fare were swiftly seized when Los Tangos took to the terrace bandstand.

The crowds needed no further inducement to enjoy a heady mix of sun and infectious rhythm, courtesy of tango, salsa, samba and the rest.

Two hours of free music and a sunny afternoon? What more could anyone want.

Upstairs in the gallery, the young and the young-at-heart were gamely taking up the challenge of the One Minute Drawing Challenge.

The plucky were invited to reach into the lucky dip and take out a piece of paper.

They then had one (somewhat elastic) minute in which to do a drawing (or drawings for the super speedy) in response to the given word.

"Don't hesitate. Don't think; Just let your ideas flow out of the pencil'¦." that was the instruction.

More free music was on its way. Saturday saw hours of rock enjoyed from terrace and balcony from late afternoon until long after a cloudless sky had been replaced by starlight.

The bill included Kansas City Prophets's live electronic lap-top set, Milke, a three-piece electronic band, DJ John Taylor, Andy Barlow's live electronic lap-top set, Overlap and audi-visuals, DJ Ben Osborne and Overlap.

And that was just Day One of the three-day sunny break that was all the more welcome for its rarity value.