Final report by Paul Myles, the festival director:

The Thomas Paine in Lewes Festival was a Success by any Measure!

Over 130 events in the ten-day festival, 185 over the year! Over 10 000 people directly participating in the events! Articles on the festival were featured in the Washington Post, Dallas News, Observer, Guardian online, The Argus and the Sussex Express, and three exposures on South East Today and on the National Politics Show. There were many broadcasts on the local  radio stations.

The Paine and Burns Night in February at Lewes Town Hall, hosted by Mike Chartier, the Mayor of Lewes at that time, was attended by 185 people and attracted many positive comments.

This event was organised with Alex Wilson, a vice president of The Caledonian Club of London and Radical Lewes Promotions- we think that this is the first large event of it’s kind, thanks to Leslie Davidson DATUK and the Ditchling Village Paine & Burns night who have been doing this for some time.

The Life and Times of Thomas Paine: the Reformation ’til today, a series of three lectures by David Powell, the author of Tom Paine, the Greatest Exile (1985) and seven discussion classes on Major American Documents by Arnold Goldman
 were organised by U3A of Lewes in April and May and were very well attended.

The ten day long festival from the 4th to the 14th of July was a huge success in quality, quantity, visitor numbers and visitor satisfaction.

The week opened with 5 of the leading Paine academics each talking about Paine on their speciality.

This event was convened by Dr Richard Whatmore for the University of Sussex Centre for Intellectual History

Hosted by the Mayor of Lewes, Amanda Dean and chaired by the deputy Mayor of Lewes, Dr Mike Turner

The speakers were:

Gareth Stedman-Jones (Cambridge): ‘Tom Paine and the French Revolution’
 

Professor Jon Mee (Warwick): ‘The Trial of Tom Paine’
 

Dr Mark Philp (Oxford): ‘Tom Paine the great democrat?’
 

Professor John Barrell (York): ‘Portraits and caricatures of Paine’
 

Professor Iain Hampsher-Monk (Exeter): ‘Tom Paine and the escape from history’
 

Over 350 people attended, the Corn Exchange filled up and people had to be turned away.

This was a common theme during the week; the 5 White Hart debates by John Calder, Sir Harry Kroto, Norman Baker MP and Kevin D’Arcy were consistently oversubscribed, as was the talk by Dr Colin Brent Paul Myles and Dr Seth Gopin on the recent Paine research at Ann of Cleves, all of these were broadcast to the world the next day by seahavenfm.com, All of the recordings were made by Chris Myatt, a professional sound engineer, free of charge- a huge thanks to Chris!

The Lewes Sacred Harp Singing and The Red White & Blue Ball by Sussex Harmony was well attended and enjoyed by over two hundred people.

Dr Seth Gopin’s introductory lecture daily in the Town Hall was attended by over 800 people and attracted very positive feedback.

The four performances of Mike Turner’s Mummers play over the two Saturdays played to a packed town precinct and were warmly received. 

A first for Lewes Theatre Club: open to the public, Only Free Men showed the club talent to thoughtful effect with regard to personal freedoms and rights. 

Also by Lewes Theatre: Setting the Scene showed Hannah Thompson’s skills as a professional set designer and scene artist in the Town Hall. 

Taking Liberties, a major British Library exhibition of freedom and liberties in the UK for the last thousand years was shown to good effect in the Corn Exchange. 

The Tom Paine Printing Press was open for the whole 11 days of the Thomas Paine and Lewes Festival. Peter Chasseaud demonstrated the press for 7 hours every day, to a total of 1,148 visitors, giving 96 complete demonstrations to individuals and groups.

The Tours of Bull House by Mary Burke were well attended over the year and were a good indicator if the House is ever properly opened to the public. 

The Headstrong Debate at Pelham House ‘ Who Cares for Whom’ was packed to capacity and lively debate ensued.

Both books, by Myles, Brent & Gage and the Paddock Printmakers sold well and were well received. 

The film ‘Routes’ went down a storm with the filmmaker being present.

The musical evening ‘The Liberty Tree’ was sold out.

The Shoe Nail Dance was an amazing event; the road closure on a perfect English Summer’s day attracted in excess of 6000 people over the three dance events and was a very moving expression of exuberance expertly directed by Susannah Waters. Chris Myatt supplied the sound amplification. 80 people accompanied Martin Brown on the guided dramatic tour of Lewes. 

Paines Progress, a play written, played and directed by Sean O’ Kane and starring the All Saints Musicians played to good audiences in the Grand Marquee in the Grange Gardens. There were special access events during the run.

Lewes Priory School showed their mettle with year 10 students under the guidance of Paul Trudgian and Mike Manktelow doing a rehearsed reading of the play ‘Banned! Tom Paine this was your Life!’ by James Watson at the first White Hart debate event.

50 UNICEF delegates from all over the world attended the Town Hall on the last evening of the festival to see Setting the Scene and Taking Liberties exhibitions. The delegates were attending a course at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Sir Richard Jolly arranged and accompaniedthe delegates and remarked how much they enjoyed the exhibitions. 

The closing ceremony for the festival took place in the Lewes Town Council chamber in the presence of Mr. James Melville, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister Counselor of the American Embassy in London.  

James, one of the senior-most American officials in the UK, took questions from the 30 year 10 students from Priory School and an audience of some 50 helpers of the festival. James spoke for 15 minutes about American foreign policy under the Obama administration and then took questions from the audience for 30 minutes.

The questions from the year 10 students from Priory School were searching and intelligent proving that they had a very good grasp of word politics, particularly with regard to American foreign policy. James also answered detailed queries from the general audience, all with candour.

At the end of the proceedings, Cllr. Amanda Dean, the Mayor of Lewes, officially closed the 10-day portion of the festival.