Brighton Festival’s Big Give campaign

Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival has joined leading match-funding charity Big Give’s Arts for Impact initiative to raise money for free-to-attend events at this year’s landmark 60th edition of Brighton Festival, which runs from 1-25 May.  

The Festival has been awarded £20,000 match-funding by The Big Give.  Donations made by the public from 17–24 March will unlock this funding and help raise £40,000 towards a range of free events, including outdoor performance, open days and visual arts.

Lucy Davies, Chief Executive of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival said: “Our mission as we honour an extraordinary legacy and celebrate this 60th Brighton Festival, is to re-root the Festival in the city. We want to turbo-charge Brighton & Hove with creative energy and deliver incredible memory-making events for our audiences. Free access to shows, events and creative opportunities are a vital part of this mission. If you feel able to give, you will be part of lighting up our city for everyone this Festival.”

There are over 25 free events during Brighton Festival 2026, with multiple performances meaning more than 100 opportunities to access the arts for free. Kicking things off is the 40th edition of the Children’s Parade, presented by Brighton Festival and arts charity Same Sky. This year, the parade will feature large-scale artworks, floats and costumes inspired by the theme of Read All About It, a nod to 2026 as the National Year of Reading. The parade is the largest of its kind in Europe and will see the streets of Brighton come alive with colour and music as hundreds of Brighton & Hove school children mark the start of Brighton Festival on Saturday 2 May.

Brighton Festival 2026 also sees the 10th edition of Our Place, an annual programme of free arts, workshops and events created in partnership with local community steering groups across the city. Originally developed with former Guest Director Kae Tempest, the celebrations include a free Family Fun Day and arts and crafts workshops at Brighton Dome (3 & 4 May), while artist LEO collaborates with residents of East Brighton to make land art and sculptures. In Moulsecoomb & Bevendean, puppeteer Darren East leads community workshops to create a live and interactive performance using giant puppetry, masks and music.  

On Hove Promenade for the duration of the Festival, land art, visual art and social sculpture collide in the World Premiere of Soft Machines, a series of monumental, embodied forms by Brighton-based artist Ivan Morison and his long-term collaborator Heather Peak. A love letter to Brighton, the city where Morison and Peak first met and trained, Soft Machines began as a series of citywide open life drawing classes. This iteration will be built in collaboration with Millimetre and Making It Out, a Brighton-based charity working with people after prison to build skills and stable futures through creative design and manufacture.  

At Phoenix Art Space, A Timeline of Infinite Skies (2 May–28 June) is an immersive installation and soundscape by artist duo Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic that highlights Brighton & Hove’s largely hidden or forgotten legacies resulting from the forced migration of enslaved people. BN9 Studio at Marine Workshops in Newhaven hosts Shhh… (2–31 May), an exhibition exploring silence as a charged force through sculpture, by artists Isobel Smith and Sussex-based Abigail Norris.

Elsewhere, in locations throughout the city across two weekends, outdoor arts experts Without Walls present free performances for all ages to enjoy, including ​dance, hip hop, high-wire circus and physical comedy,​​ curated to celebrate the unique essence of Brighton. Returning to Brighton Festival on Monday 25 May, Brighton Table Tennis Club host a free day of table tennis at Brighton Dome Corn Exchange. At Record Breaking Table Tennis, everyone is invited to help try and break some Guinness World Records, with refreshments and great music from young DJs to bring the Festival to a close. 

To donate to The Big Give’s Arts for Impact initiative and help support Brighton Festival’s free events programme, please visit https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS00000AgV4rYAF