Tickets and Festival Passes

Getting to St. Leonards-on-Sea
If you are coming from London there are trains every 30mins from Charing Cross and London Bridge to St Leonards Warrior Square and West St Leonards (It takes around 1h40) as well as trains from St Pancreas, Stratford International and Victoria.
There are also direct trains from Gatwick and Brighton. 

If you are attending on Saturday 28th all the events will be in and around Electro Studios - The nearest station is West St Leonards which is on the stop before St Leonards Warrior Square on the Charing Cross/London Bridge line from London. (It’s a 5mins walk from West St Leonards, 20min Walk from St Leonards Warrior Square)

Where to stay
There is no shortage of AirB&B’s in the area with people also offering rooms if you’re on a budget. We are hosting a few events at the Royal Victoria Hotel - A regency hotel on the seafront and they are offering a free breakfast to anyone who books during the festival (just mention Social Broadcasts in the booking notes)

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This is the beginning…
Over the past decade, Social Broadcasts has been combining community led co-creation, participatory art practice and radio making to produce place based audio projects all across the UK. In 2021 sonic storytelling platform XMTR.FM was launched with the ambition to showcase work from both emerging and seasoned independent audio makers from across the globe.

XMTR AUDIO ARTS FESTIVAL combines these two concepts to imagine an audio festival that champions local stories and artists as well as showcasing audio works from around the world. 3 days of sound installations, performances, listening events, workshops and sound walks in venues and spaces in and around St Leonards on Sea.

For this inaugural festival,  XMTR joins Sono-Electro a sound arts festival taking place at Electro Studios in St Leonards on Sea, 19th -29th September. XMTR will be curating one day at Sono-Electro (Saturday 28th September) as well as hosting a number of satellite events around St Leonards and Hastings over the weekend of the 27th-29th September. XMTR and Sono-Electro are separate but intertwined.

Why St Leonards?
This seaside resort in Hastings has been a popular destination since the 1850’s when the railways arrived from London, Brighton and the Southeast. Today the town has a thriving artist community and a plethora of historical buildings and spaces, making it an ideal place for a roving festival. The festival will take place at Electro Studios on Saturday 28th September and across multiple locations around the town with installations, performances, events and workshops on Friday 27th and Sunday 29th September.

Why An Audio Festival?
As the audio and radio making space becomes more digital, in person, creative and collaborative experiences are ever more important. There are plenty of ‘podcast’ festivals focused on the business of podcasting and the nuts and bolts of audio production, but currently in the UK  there is very little celebration of the creativity of audio making and radio arts. Inspired by festivals such as the LUCIA Festival in Florence, Radio Revolten in Halle, Germany (2016), Hearsay in Ireland (2014-2019), it’s time that there was somewhere for the ever-growing community of creative audio makers (podcast producers, sound artists, radio makers) to gather, collaborate and be inspired and for both already initiated and new audiences to experience the richness and diversity of creative audio storytelling.
This festival will connect an international audio community with the thriving local arts scene.

Local Frequencies
Part of the ethos of this festival will be that it’s not top down, but instead deeply embedded in the area and the local community. The aim is to create works featuring historical and contemporary local stories, collaborate with local artists and venues and co-ordinate audio making workshops for already embedded groups to produce ‘locally sourced’ work to be featured at the festival.
This community led, placed based work will lay the foundations for the festival, making it a celebration of place through sonic storytelling.

If you want to take part or get involved just hit get in touch below ><