About Get Hastings

Get Hastings is a free arts, culture and community-led magazine that celebrates Hastings, St Leonards on Sea, Bexhill, and surrounding areas. 3,500 print copies are distributed to over 30+ venues across Hastings, as well as 50+ cultural venues across the South East, from East Sussex and Brighton to Tunbridge Wells in Kent via our distributor Culture Calling. We are also stocked in MagCulture in London.

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Get Hastings launched in 2014 as a local Hastings guide to showcase what was happening in the area, but the town has changed a lot since then, and following the pandemic, we felt that it was time to relaunch Get Hastings, but this time also as a quarterly print magazine, beautifully designed and printed.

Hastings has a distinct personality and independent spirit – it’s original, creative, community-driven and hard to define. Our magazine attempts to capture this spirit by publishing content by local creatives who use Hastings as a constant source of inspiration. Content that inspires people to visit, go out, discover, experience and support one another. We feel passionate about where we live and we want to share that passion with you.

It is run by a dedicated team of volunteers and contributors and publishes work by local writers, illustrators, designers and photographers. Please see our mission statement below if you would like to contribute content.

The Team

Mel Elliott
Editor–in–Chief

Author, designer and illustrator who runs a successful online store, wholesale and publishing business.
melelliott.com

Beth King
Editor / Designer and Producer

Co-founder and creative director of Larking, an ethical, design and digital marketing agency.wearelarking.co.uk

Steve Painter
Photographer and Producer

Food photographer and props stylist, designer and art director for leading book publishers. stevepainter.co.uk

Laura Mingozzi-Marsh
Lead Graphic Designer

Graphic Designer, Illustrator and founder of Mingo Mingo Studio.
mingomingo.co.uk

Get Hastings is not-for-profit and all members of the Get Hastings team provide their creative skills for free at the moment. Contributors have gone on to get private commissions from being published in the magazine. We are looking at longer term funding to ensure sustainability and we endeavour to give paid work and valuable experience to young local creatives alongside opportunities for writers and photographers to have their work published in a beautifully printed magazine. All money from advertising goes directly towards covering the printing costs. If you are a business, or looking to promote yourself locally, please consider advertising or otherwise donating to help keep us going.

Our Mission Statement

Our values

Our values and behaviours provide the basis of how we work together, how we communicate and what we should expect from each other. Our values are rooted in honesty, integrity and fairness, and a sense of duty to the reader and our community.

While individual members of the Get Hastings team and our contributors hold their own views, Get Hastings itself is apolitical and non-affiliated. The magazine does not support or endorse any candidate or party in local elections (May 2nd, 2024).

Editor’s Statement

We are curious and innovative and interested in celebrating creativity and telling unusual, inspiring and engaging stories that captivate and uncover interesting facts, whilst striving for quality and accuracy in our articles.

We are always interested to hear from writers with a unique voice and point of view, and who are confident in allowing their personality and opinions to shine through in their writing, in a style that is entertaining to the reader and suits the medium of a magazine. We also expect contributors to work with us and take on board constructive feedback when, on occasion, we need to edit draft articles submitted by a writer to meet our editorial standards and the tone and style of the magazine. We will endeavor to communicate written edits in advance (deadline permitting), and we expect contributors to work collaboratively with us professionally and respectfully to deliver the final edit.

We are committed to promoting and respecting equality, diversity and inclusivity.

We want to share a wide range of views and work by LGBTQ+ creatives. As editors, we are open to new ideas and welcome work that pushes boundaries and covers topics we may not have covered yet. While our contributors hold their own values and beliefs, we cultivate a supportive and open culture, recognising that there are a broad range of views and opinions held in the community, and collectively help to embrace diversity, champion inclusivity and treat everyone with respect.

The Equality Act 2010 protects individuals from being harassed or victimised because of race, gender reassignment, sexual orientation and sex, physical or mental illness and disability, amongst other protected characteristics. We provide a platform for trans, non-binary, and gender-fluid writers, artists, photographers, designers and illustrators who would like to contribute work to Get Hastings magazine in print and online. We will not tolerate any form of discrimination or online abuse and will remove any discriminatory comments from our social media channels or on our website.

We care about the planet.

Get Hastings Magazine is printed on Revive Offset, a paper manufactured from FSC(r) Recycled 100% post-consumer waste, in accordance with ISO-certified standards for environmental, quality & energy management and is Carbon Balanced. This publication was printed locally by Hastings Print & Signage, an Environmentally Aware and Eco-Friendly printing company.

Advertising terms

We do not accept advertising from companies that mistreat their employees or who conduct business in a way that hurts the community or our planet. We will not accept advertising from fossil fuel companies or anyone associated with the arms trade. Preference is given to local independent businesses and organisations.

We will ensure all advertisements and other forms of marketing communications are legal, honest, and truthful and have been created with respect for human dignity, and an obligation to avoid harm to the reader and society, especially locally, and with a sense of fairness and responsibility to competitors.

We will ensure advertising is readily distinguishable from editorial content.