Brighton Midsummer Fencing Festival – 2026 – Instructors – Catrina Hey

Instructor – Catrina Hey

Catrina began studying Italian rapier under Andrew Feest at the Sussex Rapier School over twenty years ago.  Her early interest in the sword was developed by attending events within the UK and in Europe which gave exposure to leading instructors and systems that had a key influence in shaping HEMA, such as SWASH at the Leeds Armoury, and the FISAS conference in Italy.

Attending the Smallsword Symposium annual event organised by Black Boar Edinburgh led to her interest in this most elegant and lethal of weapons, setting up the Pierced Heart Fencing Society (2017-2019), a small Brighton-based study group focused on French smallsword, and running the Smallsword by the Sea event in 2018.

She has co-taught smallsword workshops in Malta and Edinburgh. She is a Free Scholar of the Sussex Sword Academy.