Brighton Festival 2023 opens this weekend, 6-7 May, launching a programme that celebrates community and the joy of shared experiences. This year’s Guest Director, Nabihah Iqbal, invites audiences to ‘Gather Round’ for immersive art, outdoor, family, theatre, and music events across some of Brighton’s best-loved venues and beyond. Read on for our opening weekend highlights or click here for the full programme...
Across Saturday and Sunday, visitors to Brighton Dome’s historic Concert Hall will be transported to the Sumatran rainforest for the world premiere of award-winning arts collective Invisible Flock’sThe Sleeping Tree – a captivating audio piece that uses technology to surround listeners with sounds recorded from the jungle. Tickets for this Brighton Festival exclusive event allow visitors to enter multiple times throughout the day and to stay for as long as they like, losing themselves in an atmosphere that is constantly changing and giving the listener a different experience from hour to hour.
In a special collaboration, Nabihah Iqbal will join with Invisible Flock for a unique sound performance on Sunday night highlighting the connection between humans and the forest. Later that evening, Iqbal will join sound system legend Aba Shanti-I and reggae producer Dennis Bovell MBE at Concorde 2 for a celebration of UK bass culture.
On being Guest Director, Iqbal says: “It’s been an honour to curate this year’s Festival and I’m looking forward to it adding another layer of vibrancy to Brighton, a city so full of energy already. The key is to try going to the things that you think aren’t for you… and hopefully you’ll come away pleasantly surprised”.
Elsewhere, the world premiere of Brighton Festival commission Galatea, an ambitious revival of John Lyly’s early modern play suitable for ages 8 and up, opens outdoors in Shoreham-by-Sea on 6 May. A tale of young trans love, shipwrecked migrants, clashing goddesses and fretting parents, Galatea is a major collaboration between award-winning Sussex-based director Emma Frankland; Brighton-based LGBTQ+ theatre production organisation Marlborough Productions; acclaimed Cornish outdoor theatre company Wildworks; and leading theatre scholar Andy Kesson.
Award-winning Australian artist Matthias Schack-Arnott's Groundswell, is a free, interactive outdoor spectacle taking place throughout the Festival in St Peter’s Square, in the heart of Brighton, opening on 6 May. Fun for families and individuals alike, everyone can have a go at walking on this huge tilting platform, setting in motion thousands of illuminated balls with every movement, creating waves of sound and light. Groundswell appears at Brighton Festival in collaboration with Brighton Fringe and The Pebble Trust.
On 7 May, Neil Bartlett directs actor Russell Tovey, performer Travis Alabanza, poet Joelle Taylor and writer Jay Bernard in BLUE NOW, a reimagining of Derek Jarman’s last film, Blue, which was released 30 years ago during the darkest days of Britain’s AIDS epidemic. This very special performance, which includes a new live score by the film’s original composer, Simon Fisher Turner, shares afresh Jarman’s inspiring message of compassion, love and dignity under fire.
Our annual Children's Parade has been a beloved Brighton Festival tradition for over 30 years and it's back on 7 May, bigger and better than ever! Join over 5,000 children from local schools as they parade through the streets of Brighton, showcasing their creativity and talent in self-made costumes, while embracing this year's theme of "One World, learning and growing from each other". The parade is the perfect opportunity for families to witness the impressive result of months of work put in by the students, their teachers, and volunteers from Same Sky, the South East's largest community arts charity. Best of all, it's completely free, so don't miss out on the fun!
Also, this weekend, Brighton Festival features the UK premiere of Ely Daou’s I… Cognitive Maps (6-7 May); an intimate, moving performance exploring the connection between where we are and who we are, as Daou recalls the different apartments he lived in and evacuated during the Lebanese civil war. Two art exhibitions open on 6 May at Brighton Festival: Reuben Bastienne-Lewis’s Parachute is a world premiere and a visual autobiography of South London youth culture, while Mohammed Adel’s A Future Memory offers a window into the nuances of a dual British-Bengali identity.
Click here to explore more opening weekend events and the full programme...