Brighton Festival joins the Big Give 2025 campaign to raise funding for free events programme
Today marks the launch of our Big Give fundraising campaign which will raise money towards free to attend events during this year’s Brighton Festival, 3-26 May. We are hoping to raise £10,000 in a week, which will offer thousands of people the opportunity to enjoy high quality, fun performances, art installations and activities.
Our goal
The Big Give Arts for Impact campaign will run from midday Tuesday 18 May to midday Tuesday 25 March; with £5,000 match-funding pledged from the Big Give, every pound donated during the campaign week will be doubled, up to the target of £10,000.
Lucy Davies, Chief Executive of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival said:
“Our free events are more important than ever. Free access to shows, events and creative opportunities are a vital part of our offer to Brighton’s community. We want the Festival’s most ambitious and joyous events to be open to all, and of course that means we need help. If you feel able to give, you will be part of lighting up our city for everyone this Festival.”
Create your own new dawn
This year’s Festival will provide Brighton & Hove and beyond with a celebration of creativity in the community – the exciting programme includes participatory event, How dark it is before dawn. Invited by Guest Director Anoushka Shankar to create the cover for the Brighton Festival 2025 brochures, artists Neil Ghose Balser and Doyel Joshi (Howareyoufeeling.studio) are asking people of all ages and backgrounds to draw their version of this year’s Festival theme, a New Dawn, concluding in a celebratory art installation over the closing Festival weekend at The Old Courtroom.
Community favourites
This year, the free events programme includes the unmissable Children’s Parade, with thousands of students from over 60 schools across the city taking part; and this year’s newly commissioned outdoor shows from Without Walls continue to push the boundaries of performance in public spaces. Taking place at various locations across Brighton and Crawley, these free, family-friendly and accessible events include traditional and contemporary dance, an interactive water installation, trapeze, puppetry and physical theatre and explore themes including climate change, the natural world and the power of human connection.
Other highlights
Don't miss the ground-breaking photography exhibition dotted across bus shelters in the city, Beside the Sea, music with professional musicians and Create Music students, and collaborations with artists and residents in East Brighton, Hangleton & Knoll and Moulsecoomb & Bevendean in Our Place, the festival’s partnership with local communities.
Table tennis is back!
After last year’s massive success, Brighton Table Tennis Club returns on Monday 26 May with Table Tennis Day; a full day of table tennis fun for the whole family featuring twenty tables, music and delicious food in the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange. We’re excited to be joined again this year by Paralympic Team GB medal winners Will Bayley and Bly Twomey.
To donate to Brighton Festival’s free events programme through our Big Give Arts for Impact campaign, and to help keep the arts accessible for all, please click here.
Children’s Parade supported by Brighton Girls, in partnership with Same Sky
Our Place supported by Brighton & Hove Buses
