Brighton Festival Guest Directors

Screenwriter and novelist

Nabihah’s debut as a recording artist came in 2017 with the release of her album Weighing of the Heart on the UK’s Ninja Tune label. Garnering huge praise from The Guardian, Dazed and BBC Radio, it was described by Pitchfork as ‘some of the finest, most viscerally satisfying electronic pop music of the year’. She is currently a resident artist at London’s Somerset House Studios, where she is writing and recording her second album due for release…

Tristan Sharps has been creating large-scale site-specific projects for the past 26 years. He trained at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris in 1988-1990 before performing and creating projects with a variety of companies in the UK and around the world. In 1995/6 he co-devised 2000 inspired by Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler, transforming the Union Chapel in Islington into the fictional world of the hotel Roulettenburg. He formed dreamthinkspeak in…

Marwa Al-Sabouni is a Syrian architect and author. A Prince Claus laureate 2018, and named in the BBC’s 100 Women, 2019.Her acclaimed book The Battle for Home was chosen by the Guardian as one of best architectural books of 2016 and was named by UK Prospect Magazine as one of the Top 50 thinkers in the world. Her second book, Building for Hope, was published by Thames & Hudson in April 2021. She is an international public speaker, taking…

If you Google, the name 'Lemn Sissay' all the returning hits will be about him. There’s only one person in the world named Lemn Sissay

With her work rooted in Malian musical tradition, 2019’s Guest Director was one of Africa’s most inventive musicians

Best known for his distinctive drawing style and works that make satirical comments on the absurdity of 21st-century society.

The Guest Director for Brighton Festival 2017 was the acclaimed recording artist, poet, playwright and novelist

The experimental artist and musician took the helm as Guest Director in 2016 as Brighton Festival celebrated its milestone 50th year

Described as an heir to Virgina Woolf, this award winning Scottish author was guest director for the 49th Festival

Critically acclaimed choreographer, dancer, musician, composer and performer Hofesh Shechter helmed the 2014 Festival

Celebrated poet, writer, broadcaster and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen led the 47th Brighton Festival

Vanessa Redgrave brought her unique passion to the role of Guest Director of the 46th Brighton Festival.

Brighton Festival celebrated liberty and freedom with Guest Director Aung San Suu Kyi in 2011.

One of popular music’s most innovative and influential figures, Brian Eno crafted a highly personal programme in 2010

Brighton Festival’s inaugural Guest Artistic Director Anish Kapoor turned Brighton into a city-wide art gallery.