Celebrate the Grand Hotel’s 150th anniversary in style with November’s three-day Festival bringing to life many of the colourful personalities who have stayed or performed here.
The final night is full of scandal as we look back to the early years of The Grand Hotel’s opening. During this time, we often invites the upper classes to Eastbourne for holidays by the sea, most of whom would stay for months at a time. One of those faces? French composer Claude Debussy, who booked himself and his lover, Emma Bardac, into a seaview suite (now room 200), to hide from his messy divorce scandal. As well as a nod to his famous pieces, we enjoy Tosti, Nellie Melba and Puccini in concert, before moving through to dinner, where Nellie Melba is honoured once again with the dessert created at the Savoy Hotel in the 1890's especially for her.
The three-day Festival will recreate the appearances of some of the great artists who have graced the Grand Hotel. Artistic directors Stephannie Williams and international music critic Christopher Morley have assembled an international cast of performers to bring them all to life: soprano Anita Watson, mezzo Maria Jagusz, tenor Nicky Spence, bass Arwel Huw Morgan, violinist Lana Trotovsek, cellist Eduardo Vassallo, flautist Boris Bizjak, pianists Mark Bebbington and Dylan Perez. Kevin Whately is the compere, with Madelaine Newton joining him in theatrical scenes.
View the Sunday evening menu HERE
Discover the full three-day festival package HERE