House Mother Normal - Site Specific
A digital installation inspired by BS Johnson's celebrated novel, directed by Tim Crouch.
House Mother Normal - Online
A digital installation inspired by BS Johnson's celebrated novel, directed by Tim Crouch.
5 Minutes with Theatre-maker Tim Crouch
Swimming With My Mother
A mother and son navigate the ebb and flow of their shared history in this intimate and heart-warming dance duet.At two years of age, Ireland’s youngest swimming hope takes a lesson from his mother, a swimming coach. Life passes in laps, things change and the boy teaches his mother to dance. As their own stories intertwine and swell like a rising tide,…
The Contents of a House
The British performance artist Peter Reder has spent weeks mining the tales and the treasures of Preston Manor. Now he wants to tell you about them.Preston Manor is the epitome of Edwardian glamour, yet its history reaches back to the Domesday Book. Over the centuries it has become a repository of memory: a trove of objects, images and histories. What…
Safe House
Home: a place of safety, sanctuary and security, or a place of isolation and imprisonment? This spectacular outdoor performance begins with a race through familiar streets before arriving at a particular, mysterious house. A figure balanced precariously on the roof tells the house's story and leads the audience on a surreal and poetic journey as rooms,…
Festival Hot Seat: A House Repeated
A House Repeated is an interactive performance-game that combines the simplicity of bare-bones storytelling with the limitless possibilities of contemporary open-world computer games. We caught up with creator and performer Seth Kriebel to find out more.Firstly, can you introduce your show and tell us what it is about?A House Repeated is…
A House Repeated
Come in. Sit down. Explore.A House Repeated is an interactive performance-game that combines the simplicity of bare-bones storytelling with the limitless possibilities of contemporary open-world computer games.In a new version written specially for Brighton Festival, you'll give instructions to the performers on stage, working with your fellow audience…
Title revealed for Young City Reads 2018
Greg James and Chris Smith's Kid Normal chosen for city-wide 'big read' as part of Brighton Festival Collected Works CIC and Brighton Festival are delighted to reveal that Greg James and Chris Smith's Kid Normal has been chosen as the 2018 'big read' for children across Brighton & Hove and beyond. The concept is simple: one book, by one author,…
Brighton Festival 2016 Listing Highlights
Contemporary musicLaurie Anderson: Music for DogsUK PremiereTue 10 May, 7.30pm‘Wouldn’t it be great if you’re playing a concert and you look out and everyone’s a dog?’ Laurie Anderson mused while waiting backstage with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. True to form, Anderson made her outlandish dream come true: first at the Sydney Opera House, and again in New York’s…
At Home
Home Live Art has taken up temporary residence in the exquisite Angel House, a restored Regency home on Brighton’s seafront. A unique experience made for a unique space, At Home with Angel House, revisions the salon tradition of gathering, conversation, and entertainment.Bricks and mortar, family, gender roles and relationships...who and what makes…
Gillian Wearing: ‘A Room With Your Views’
Turner Prize-winning British artist Gillian Wearing will present the world premiere of Your Views - one of the largest collaborative film projects ever to be produced - at HOUSE, Brighton’s festival of visual art, and Brighton Festival 2016 – the largest and most established multi-arts festival in England which this year marks its 50th anniversary.‘A…
Charlotte Vincent on...
Vincent Dance Theatre – the Brighton-based dance company and associate company of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival founded by choreographer and director Charlotte Vincent – is celebrating its 21st birthday this year in style as they head to Brighton Festival 2015 with two very special works; Underworld and Look At Me Now, Mummy, as part of their…
Festival Hot Seat: COAT
Picture this. Nigeria, a grandmother passes. In London, a son cooks a pot of stew for his mother hoping to uncover hidden stories and unanswered questions. Yomi Sode talks to us about immigration, identity, displacement and his moving performance, COAT. Firstly, can you introduce your show and tell us what it is about?COAT explores the relationship…
Brighton Palermo Remix
In a major Brighton Festival and HOUSE 2012 co-commission, this internationally renowned artist draws connections between Sicilian street festival decoration and the vernacular of Brighton’s Regency architecture.For many years David Batchelor has looked to the streets for inspiration. Using everyday objects of the modern urban environment – from salvaged…
Festival Hot Seat...SPECTRA: CAST
Artist duo Walter & Zoniel plan to transform Brighton Beach into the biggest canvas in town with SPECTRA: CAST, which is part performance, part installation. Here they tell us more about what’s in store.Can you tell us what your show is about?SPECTRA: CAST is a large-scale public installation where we will be painting Brighton beach multi-coloured.…
Pioneering artist and musician Laurie Anderson announced as Guest Director for 50th Brighton Festival
Brighton Festival is delighted to announce that the Guest Director for 2016 is the pioneering artist and musician Laurie Anderson. Anderson will take the helm as Brighton Festival marks its milestone 50th year, celebrates its unique, energetic and creative city, and reflects on the nature of home. Renowned for her inventive use of technology -…
Be part of Gillian Wearing’s A Room With Your Views
Turner-Prize winning artist Gillian Wearing is seeking participants to be part of a unique, global, collective filmmaking project - one of the largest of its kind ever to be produced - for a new commission, A Room With Your Views, as part of this year’s Brighton Festival and HOUSE festival.The project aims to capture a snapshot of views from people’s…
Heterotopias and other domestic landscapes
Mariele Neudecker’s visionary installation transforms The Regency Town House into a container of landscapes. This major new commission uses several interconnected artworks to explore both the familiar and sublime. The cropped edge in Neudecker’s landscapes becomes a form of human intervention: her representations of vast panoramas are limited…
Gillian Wearing
Turner Prize-winning British artist Gillian Wearing – the Invited Artist for HOUSE 2016 – will present Your Views, a global collaborative work which captures a snapshot of 'views' from windows across the world.Wearing examines our public personas and private lives, describing her working method as ‘editing life’. Using photography and video to record…
From Your Place to Our Place
Back in 2017, Brighton Festival Guest Director Kate Tempest was inspired to initiate Your Place, a project with the aim of taking the Festival out to the communities of Brighton & Hove who might not be able to participate in cultural and artistic events. For Brighton Festival 2019, Your Place will transition to Our Place - a nation-funded initiative…
The Measure Of All Things' Sam Green On...
The Measure of All Things is a new live cinema performance by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground) with acclaimed chamber group yMusic. Here he discusses the film and his love of world records (book here for The Measure of All Things)Sam Green on...… describing The Measure Of All Things as a ‘pretty weird’ movie:It’s…
Festival Hot Seat: The Enormous Room
In an epic new production from Stopgap Dance Company - part of the Festival's caravan biennial showcase - we follow a father and daughter gradually coming to terms with the loss of their wife and mother. In this Festival Hot Seat, Stopgap's Artistic Director Lucy Bennett talks to us about her inspiration behind the piece.Firstly, can…
Everything you need to know about Lemn Sissay
The much-loved British and Ethiopian poet, playwright, broadcaster and speaker, Lemn Sissay MBE is Brighton Festival’s Guest Director in 2020. Here are a few interesting facts about Lemn’s life and work.Lemn was born on 21 May 1967 to an Ethiopian mother, shortly after she moved to England to study. Lemn was taken into long-term foster care in Wigan…
Yolk and Aliens - A Conversation with Jane Horrocks & collaborators
Following the showing of these new films join the discussion with the creatives as they explore memory.
Crows & Palle Alone in the World
Crows (1994, Poland)Dorota KedzierzawskaWrona (pl. crow) is neglected by her feckless mother, laughed at by her classmates and furious with the world. So she steals a cute little girl to become a surrogate mother. She soon discovers just how hard being a parent really is. Kedzierzawska's remarkable film about a damaged girl trying to heal herself is…
The White Balloon & 10 Minutes Older
The White Balloon (1995, Iran, U) Jafar Panahi’s first feature film is a masterpiece about a little girl who won’t take no for an answer. Razieh wants a new goldfish to celebrate the Iranian New Year, and after nagging her mother she finally gets her way. But when her mother gives her the money, that’s only the start of her adventure. Utterly real…
Look At Me Now, Mummy
‘(Charlotte Vincent is)...one of the most important feminist artists working in Britain today.’ **** Luke Jennings The Observer, March 2015Director/Choreographer and Brighton Festival Associate, Charlotte Vincent’s Look At Me Now, Mummy, is a comi-tragic one-woman show created with long-term Polish collaborator Aurora Lubos, eight months after giving…
Some Small Isle
From 2017, British government policy put people from Commonwealth territories who arrived in the UK before 1973 increasingly at risk of deportation. These hostile government policies struck poet Zena Edwards, whose mother was asked to fill forms to prove her residence; and prompted Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff to edit Mother Country, an anthology documenting…
Laima
With roots in São Paulo's art scene, UK-based Laima Leyton’s musical credentials have been firmly established as one-half of 'rocktronica' project Mixhell, alongside her husband Iggor Cavalera.Now the DJ, activist, artist, mother and teacher has united her multifaceted talents in a solo electronic pop project, with conceptual debut album Home arriving…
A Family Outing – 20 Years On
Twenty years ago Ursula Martinez sat with her parents on a sofa for an hour and argued. Audiences and the media loved it! Since the ‘truly hilarious’ original, Martinez has turned 50, her father Arthur has passed away and her mother Mila can no longer remember her lines. This bracingly funny recreation blurs the lines of reality whilst grappling…
Box Clever
Due to unforeseen circumstances, nabakov is unable to present Box Clever at this year’s Brighton Festival and this event is now cancelled. All ticket holders will be automatically refunded. If you have any queries, contact tickets@brightonfestival.org. We apologise for the disappointment and hope you will still find other events to enjoy…
Yeelen (Brightness) (PG)
In the sun-baked landscapes of West Africa, a young Bambara native, Niankoro (Issiaka Kane), leaves his mother’s house on a quest for spiritual enlightenment. Along the way he negotiates the implications of his magical powers and sexuality before battling the sorcerer father who abandoned him years ago.
Interview: Brighton Festival Photography with Summer Dean
Summer Dean is a freelance photographer/film maker and artist based in Brighton.We caught up with her to find out what she’s doing to keep creative during lockdown and take a look back at some of her favourite Festival images from the last few years.What is your role at Brighton Festival?I’ve worked for the Festival since about 2013, just before I…
Richard Cupidi
For over 25 years the Public House Bookshop served Brighton (and beyond) as an independent cultural emporium and book-take-away. It inspired Ginsberg to write poems about it, neo-Nazis to firebomb it, citizens to defend it, and musicians and performers to play in it. Environments like the Public House – fired with passion, creativity, and pleasure…
Fixing Point
Follow the smartphone provided to find audio recordings hidden among the trees in Stanmer Woods. On your solitary journey listen to fragments of an interview with Anne as she talks about her missing brother. And as you do so, trace the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland. What lies hidden? Where are we silent?Fixing Point is an exploration…
Hangover Square
Set in the seamy watering holes of Earls Court and a rain-swept Brighton on the cusp of World War II, Hangover Square is widely regarded as Patrick Hamilton’s masterpiece. To mark the 50th anniversary of the author’s death this unique art installation revisits his bleak hymn to obsessive desire.Two inextricably linked interiors form the heart of the…
Yinka Shonibare MBE
An exciting opportunity to learn more about Yinka Shonibare MBE’s practice, his new commission The British Library and the development of the HOUSE 2014 theme of Migration, Territory and Refuge across both artists’ practice.Hofesh Shechter is Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2014. Recognised as one of the UK’s most exciting contemporary artists,…
Ester Svensson & Rosanna Martin
This talk will explore Svensson & Martin’s HOUSE 2014 commission within a contemporary craft context and how the work deviates from this into sculpture/ installation.Annie Cattrell was born in Glasgow and studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art, University of Ulster and glass at the Royal College of Art. Cattrell’s recent solo exhibitions include…
Tobias Revell
Artist, critical designer and futurist Tobias Revell talks with filmmaker Anab Jain (Superflux). Revell and Jain will be delving into the themes explored in Revell’s new film work The Monopoly of Legitimate Use. A HOUSE 2014 and Lighthouse co-commission.This is a HOUSE 2014 event and tickets are available via Eventbrite.
Pitch Up at Brighton Festival
An afternoon of pitches from theatre makers, producers and venues in the house network (find out more about the house network). We hope that some of the partnerships formed will be among this year’s greenhouse commissions; investments of £3000-£8000 to explore new ideas.To apply for a 12min slot at Pitch Up, submit an idea by 10am Thursday 2 April.…
City Collective
City Collective begins with a photograph taken of staff on the balconies of Brighton’s Grand Hotel on the day it reopened after the 1984 bombing.The project is a collaboration between filmmaker Abigail Norris, theatre director Maria Pattinson and an inter-generational group of Brighton & Hove residents who have collectively responded to questions…
Evie Wyld & Niven Govinden
City Hall in the heart of New York or a storied house at the edge of the Scottish mainland, a story’s location evokes feelings in a reader before the plot even unfolds. Is it because we recognise that the anonymity that cities offer, for example, can give birth to the kinds of stories that small towns can’t? But what stories emerge when place and time…
Explore the Venues
Find out the best way to get to each of our many venues and info on access and venue details
Gift Acceptance Policy
The purpose of the Gift Acceptance & due diligence document is for internal use by the BDBF Development department is to ensure best fundraising practice.This document should be read in conjunction with BDFL’s organisational Ethical Policy. BDFL’s Ethical Policy related to fundraising and acceptance of gifts is as follows:4.1 BDFL will not accept…
Winners announced for competition to raise awareness of water scarcity
Brighton Festival, Brighton & Hove environmental education (BHee), Brighton & Lewes Downs Biosphere and Southern Water have announced the winners of the Our Water Matters competition.The competition saw primary-aged children challenged to think of ways that they, their families and their schools could save water, with an aim to raise awareness…
Brighton Festival Live: Bang Said the Gun
Bang Said the Gun will be live streamed on Sat 20 May, 8pmVoted the best poetry night in the UK by The Times, Bang Said the Gun is for people who don’t like poetry. Normal rules do not apply here: it’s loud, raucous, political, trivial, serious and very funny.Bang Said the Gun’s unique brand of stand up poetry has been described by Kate Tempest…
Title revealed for City Reads 2018
Rose Tremain’s Sacred Country chosen for city-wide 'big read' as part of Brighton Festival Collected Works CIC and Brighton Festival are delighted to reveal that Rose Tremain’s Sacred Country has been chosen as this year’s City Read across Brighton & Hove and beyond. The concept is simple: one book, by one author, is selected for the whole community…
Festival Hot Seat: Rear View
David Wheeler, artistic director of Halifax-based IOU theatre tells us about Rear View and working on the show with performance poets Jemima Foxtrot and Cecilia Knapp. Firstly, can you introduce your show and tell us what it is about?The central idea is that the audience is lead around the town by a young woman visiting special places in…
Artist’s blog: Rachel Blackman, theatre artist, performer and somatic educator on Collidescope
As applications are open for Collidescope 2018, we asked a former participant to reflect on her experiences of Brighton Festival’s Artist development programmeCollidescope offers a chance for a group of mid-career artists from various disciplines, to experience a large chunk of the Festival program, it is also a chance to rub shoulders with like…
Festival Hot Seat: Adam
Adam is National Theatre of Scotland’s remarkable production about one trans man’s powerful true story - and the winner of a clutch of awards. We caught up with Director Cora Bissett to find out more about the incredible true story behind the show. Firstly, can you introduce your show and tell us what it is about?Adam is the real-life…
Five Minutes with Flexer & Sandiland: Curiouser
Curiouser is a wild journey deep down into subterranean caves, through leafy forests and high up into the starry night sky. Adults become little and children become great in this interactive imaginary world of ever changing proportions. For a peek behind the curtain of this exciting and innovative show, join us for a quick five minute chat with…
Five Minutes with the Ruisi Quartet
Winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society award for Young British String Players, the Ruisi Quartet has established a reputation as a charismatic and expressive ensemble, delivering performances that are "strikingly immediate, committed and direct" (Chichester Observer). The musicians behind the reputation have given us a quick insight into…
Boho Gelato's Syrian Flavoured Ice Cream Supports Children's Big Read
In honour of this year’s Young City Reads book, The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf, Brighton-based artisan ice-cream parlour Boho Gelato has created a Syrian-inspired flavour, on sale until the end of the summer. The book follows the moving story of Ahmet, a young Syrian refugee and a group of determined nine-year-olds, who…
Lydia Wilkins: How to make Events Accessible and Autism-Friendly
Recently we spoke to Lydia Wilkins, a journalist and occasional blog writer who was diagnosed with autism just before her sixteenth birthday. Hearing from Lydia about the various changes events organisations could implement to make their performances more accessible to those with invisible disabilities, like Autism, mental health issues, and physical…
Brighton Festival's Relaxed Events
It's important to us that everyone who wants to get involved in Brighton Festival is able. This is why we sought out Lydia Wilkins' opinion on how to create an accessible range of events so that everyone is able to find something they will enjoy. We have helpfully compiled a list of the Festival's ‘Relaxed Events’, specifically curated and…
Pay it Forward Scheme
Pay It Forward (PIF) is a scheme that ensures everyone can enjoy Brighton Festival. Introduced in 2017 by Guest Director, Kate Tempest, the Pay It Forward scheme will be entering its third year of bringing the together at Brighton Festival. Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2020, Lemn Sissay welcomes everyone to unite, join in and reflect:“The most…
Interview with caravan showcase artist Andy Field
Andy Field is an artist, writer and curator and is one of the participating artists selected to take part in caravan, the biennial showcase of English performance as part of Brighton Festival. We spoke to him about how he’s adapted from creating a physical piece of theatre for an online audience. Can you tell us about the show…
Brighton Festival is coming: 1-23 May 2021
We are delighted to be working with Lemn Sissay on Brighton Festival 2021, continuing his role as guest director following last year’s cancellation due to the coronavirus pandemic.Soon after the cancellation of last year’s Festival, Lemn and the team began planning the 2021 Festival with our ‘new normal’ in mind. Brighton Festival has become known…
The Nothing to See Here Hotel
With award winning duo, bestselling author Steven Butler and illustrator Steven Lenton
Sophy Henn - Pizazz
The writer and children’s book illustrator discusses her new series following the adventures of Pizazz
Barricade
Two trucks block Hove Park. They disgorge their contents, creating an obstacle to normal paths and daily routines.Suddenly, the wind is rising. People are constructing defences to protect themselves from the storm. They hurry to bring tyres, ladders and other objects in impossible volumes. The barricade they build, a spectacular aerial playground,…
Katharina Wolpe
Beethoven Sonata in E, Op 109Stefan WolpeSong 1941A Piece of Embittered Music 1941Form 1951Schubert Impromptu in B flat,D 935Impromptu in E flat D 899In a special late addition to this year’s lunchtime programme we are delighted to welcome pianist Katharina Wolpe.Katharina did not have the typical upbringing of most classical pianists, she doesn’t…
Like Rabbits
One night in a city a man and a woman meet and have sex and fall deeply in love.Each night the lovers slip away from their real lives into a world that exists only in their shared imagination. A world that belongs to them; a world in which they are not their normal selves, but King of the Rabbits and Queen of the Hares. But what begins as a game soon…
Enhanced Dance to Disguised Music
Tickets are still available for the event. Online booking will close an hour before the show is due to start but tickets will still be available at the venue. Nothing is normal here. Or rather: Everything is extraordinary! Dance as you've never seen it before. A piano as you've never heard it before. A performance that defies physical constraints.Danse…
Portraits in Motion
£10 Festival standby tickets are available for Portraits in Motion tonight - find out if you are eligible hereWinner of the Total Theatre Award for Innovation and Playing with FormEdinburgh Festival Fringe 2015An intrepid traveller and passionate creator of photographic flipbooks, Volker Gerling has walked over 3,500km throughout Germany…
Emerge/ncy
Overnight, a strange portal emerges in Brighton: a mysterious form has burst through the ground and an opening is visible at the top. Slowly, displaced people begin to emerge. Where do they go now? How do we respond to them?In this unique durational performance piece, which evolves over the course of each day, Tangled Feet questions how we all cope…
Bang Said the Gun
Voted the best poetry night in the UK by The Times, Bang Said the Gun is for people who don’t like poetry. Normal rules do not apply here: it’s loud, raucous, political, trivial, serious and very funny.Bang Said the Gun’s unique brand of stand up poetry has been described by Kate Tempest as ‘like mud wrestling with words’ and by former Poet Laureate…
Young City Reads 2018
Kid Normal by Greg James and Chris Smith
Bang Said the Gun
Back at Brighton Festival for a second year is the poetry night for people that don’t usually like poetry. Kate Tempest called it ‘mud wrestling with words’, while The Times voted it the best poetry night in the UK. Normal rules do not apply here: Bang Said the Gun is loud, raucous, political, trivial, serious, and very funny.Co-founder of Bang!Said…
Mimbre: The Exploded Circus
A visually stunning performance from all-female troupe Mimbre.The show starts as an explosion has been caught frozen in time, with the remnants of the circus ring left hanging in the air – suspended above the ground in a fleeting moment. It is in this world that six circus performers use acrobatics, aerial work, juggling and other specialist skills…
The New Dystopians
'We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.’ 1984 (George Orwell) Daily claims of ‘fake news’ suggest that old dystopias, of the kind George Orwell cannily describes in his iconic novel 1984, have become the new normal. What, then, does a new dystopia look like? Two hugely anticipated debut novels – Cygnet by Season Butler and The…
Laurie Anderson is Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2016
Brighton Festival is delighted to announce the pioneering artist and musician Laurie Anderson as Guest Director for 2016.Anderson will take the helm as Brighton Festival marks its milestone 50th year, celebrates its unique, energetic and creative city, and reflects on the nature of home.Renowned for her inventive use of technology - from her 1981 hit…
Five minutes with... Alexei Sayle
Alexei Sayle joins us this Brighton Festival to discuss his new memoir, Thatcher Stole My Trousers. We pinned him down for a quick, but seriously funny five minutes of questions...I knew I wanted to be a comedian when…I never wanted to be a comedian that’s why I seem so angry all the time.My first public performance took place at…My mother used…
Programmer Picks: Brighton Festival Books & Debates events
Alice O’Keefe, freelance journalist and Brighton Festival Books & Debate programmer, picks a few, of the many, literary events she’s most looking forward to. Brett Anderson: Coal Black MorningsYes, this is Brett Anderson as in Suede, and it turns out that he is a proper writer: his autobiography, Coal Black Mornings, is so much more…
Programmer Picks: Brighton Festival Theatre, Circus and Dance
Sally Cowling, Associate Producer of the Brighton Festival, shares a couple of her top performance picks.The pieces I’ve picked out of our enormous programme of performances are all works that I think are phenomenal, virtuosic and unlike almost anything else out there in the world, either because of their subject matter or because of their…
Spotlight on Contemporary Music at Brighton Festival: Part Two
From jazz to alt-rock to folk, we've got some epic gigs coming up this May. We shine a light on just a few of the many amazing contemporary music events at this year’s Festival.Deerhoof + s t a r g a z eDeerhoof, an american experimental rock group, was formed in San Francisco in 1994. In a career that has spanned nearly 25 years and showing no signs…
Who are The Storytelling Army?
Ahead of this year's intimate storytelling events in Queen's Park and Worthing Pavilion Cafe, Stef O’Driscoll from nabokov tells us more about these special events that join people from all walks of life in enjoying a simple meal together and hearing each others storiesWho are you and what is Storytelling Army?I am Stef O’Driscoll a theatre director…
First Show Announced for Brighton Festival 2020
Brighton Festival, the biggest annual multi-arts festival in England returns next year from 2 to 24 May 2020 with a world première by Hofesh Shechter Company.Double Murder is a thrilling new two-part contemporary dance for our times, led by the multitalented choreographer Hofesh Shechter OBE and performed by ten of his inimitable dancers, accompanied…
2010: Brian Eno
One of popular music’s most innovative and influential figures, Brian Eno crafted a highly personal programme in 2010
A Trick of the Eye: flipped eye at 20
Amina Jama, Niall O'Sullivan, Maia Elsner & Roger Robinson celebrate flipped eye publishing's legacy
Pier to Pier
What is it like to live on the edge? What keeps us balanced in turbulent times? What do we feel when we look to the horizon?
Global Conversations: African Diaspora Movements
Courttia Newland (UK) & Dr Kelvin C. Black (USA) discuss African Diaspora Movements, from tap dance and patois to South African viral hit Jerusalema
Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage
A clever, funny and thoroughly exhilarating take on the much-studied Old English poem, New York-based company, Banana Bag and Bodice reclaim Beowulf from years of academic analysis and return it to the raw and rousing style of Anglo-Saxon storytelling. The tale of Beowulf and his battles with the monster Grendel and Grendel’s vengeful mother is brought…
Nicola Davies
Due to circumstances beyond our control today's 26 Letters event Nicola Davies - Shells and Stars and Wiggly Worms has been cancelled. We are very sorry for this disappointment and the short notice, tickets holders will receive a full refund within the next few days.Children, you know what fun it is to run through autumn leaves? Go barefoot on the…
Oedipussy
Hot on the heels of their ‘gloriously anarchic’ (The Times) Moby Dick comes the latest slice of Spymonkey lunacy: an outrageous no-holds barred subversion of the quintessential Greek tragedy. Take Spymonkey’s ‘utterly infectious’ (Independent) physical comedy. Combine with the playful storytelling of Kneehigh artistic director Emma Rice (The Red Shoes,…
Brighton Festival Chorus
Brighton Festival ChorusBrighton Festival Youth ChoirJames Morgan conductorBrahms Four Songs, Op. 17Holst Choral Hymns from the Riga Veda, Op. 26;Two Eastern Pictures; Ave MariaFollowing the English Chamber Choir and Cardinal’s Music, this short concert series of Friday evening choral concerts concludes with an evening of candlelit song in the lofty…
Charge of the Light Brigade
The final instalment in this celebration of Redgrave’s early film career. This satirical account of wartime Victorian England elicits brilliant performances from John Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave in a tale of the contrasts between aristocracy and the lower classes. Redgrave appeared with her mother, Rachel Kempson, brother Corin and…
African Dance Party
London's calling, Nigeria's speaking - in the voice of Eno Williams, who retells traditional Nigerian tales in a clash of African and electro elements. A fresh new force on the music scene, Ibibio Sound Machine, fronted by Williams, released its first album in February. Now that album bursts into life in this late-night club special. The folk stories…
Little Fugitive
After their mother leaves them alone in New York for the weekend, seven year-old Joey is tricked into thinking he’s killed his older brother. So he runs away to the funfair at Coney Island, to get lost in the rides and the spectacle. Film-maker Morris Engel and his team see so much in him: a cowboy, the boy in Shane, the kid in Chaplin’s The Kid. It…
Down by the Greenwood Side
Online booking for today's performance has closed. A very limited number of tickets may be available on the door at the venue.Harrison Birtwistle ComposerMichael Nyman LibrettoSusannah Waters DirectorChristopher Stark ConductorNicola Blackwell DesignerClare O’Donoghue Lighting DesignerSir Harrison Birtwistle’s Down by the Greenwood Side was commissioned…
Underworld & Look At Me Now, Mummy
' ….a dark and smoky dreamworld….Superb performances’ **** The Guardian, March 2015‘Contemporary dance fans should beat a path to her door.’ **** The Observer, March 2015Brighton Festival Associate Company Vincent Dance Theatre brings exclusive durational versions of two acclaimed works Underworld and Look At Me Now, Mummy to Brighton Festival.UnderworldTrapped…
Laura Snowden and Tom Ellis
Stephen Dodgson PastourelleFalla Pièces EspagnolesCarlo Domeniconi …un tempo che fu un pensiero in gioiaRavel Mother Goose Suite (extracts)Giuliani Variazoni Concertanti Op.130Laura Snowden and Tom Ellis have been performing together since the age of 15 and are now at the forefront of a new generation of guitar virtuosi. Winners of the 2012 Ligita…
Archipelago
One of the most important voices in British independent cinema, Joanna Hogg’s follow-up to her 2007 breakthrough Unrelated is a bittersweet portrait of a family in crisis. Edward is soon to depart on a volunteering trip to Africa, but before he sets off his mother and sister organise a family get-together on the remote and beautiful Scilly Isle of…
The Diary of One Who Disappeared
Remaining tickets for this event will be taken down from our website roughly 3 hours before it starts to be sold at the venue.Brahms 49 deutsche Volkslieder (selection)Britten Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo Op. 22Dvořák Cigánské melodie (Gypsy Songs) Op. 55Janáček The Diary of One Who DisappearedLove and the allure of Gypsy life thread through the works…
Carleen Anderson
Any remaining tickets for this event will be taken down from our website roughly 3 hours before it starts to be sold at the venue.‘For live performances, you absolutely have to see Carleen Anderson,’ Amy Winehouse once said, ‘I would sit around the venue all day, just to hear her sound-check.’ You can believe every word Amy said. When Anderson performs,…
Charles Linehan Company
Charles Linehan returns to Brighton Festival with a contrasting double bill of new works. My Mother’s Tears mines the personal history of William Trevitt and Michael Nunn (BalletBoyz) performing classical ballet mime from The Royal Ballet repertoire with unpredictable consequences.Drawing on their repertoire, Linehan plays with its language and context…
No Home Movie
Directed by Chantal AkermanThe final film of the great Belgian film-maker Chantal Akerman is a moving memoir of her mother’s last months. Confined to her Brussels apartment, Natalia’s harrowing past as an Auschwitz survivor, and her chronic anxiety, greatly influenced Akerman’s art. This special preview screening ahead of the film’s UK release is a…
Kate Summerscale
In 1895, 13 year-old Robert Coombes stood trial for the murder of his mother, who lay dead in bed while he went on a 10-day spending spree with her housekeeping money. Kate Summerscale, author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, returns to the murder scene in her new book, The Wicked Boy. She discusses the case’s background and contemporary issues of…
The Guilty Feminist
Comedian Deborah Frances-White records a live episode of her hit podcast The Guilty Feminist, the show in which she explores her noble goals as a 21st century feminist and the hypocrisies and insecurities which undermine them. She is joined by guest co-host Jessica Fostekew and very special guests Rebekah Staton and Sharon Horgan to discuss motherhood…
Beowulf
Beowulf is the oldest story in the English language – and it still has the power to raise the hairs on the back of the neck. It tells of a hero’s life, a life that is mapped by three tremendous blood-curdling encounters.As a young man Beowulf defeats the monster Grendel and his even more terrifying Mother, the original creatures from the Black Lagoon.…
Brett Anderson: Coal Black Mornings
As lead singer of Suede, Brett Anderson helped to shape British culture in the 1990s. But his upbringing in 1970s Haywards Heath couldn’t have been further from rock star glamour. In his memoir Coal Black Mornings, he describes his poverty-stricken childhood and his relationship with his artistic mother and his eccentric taxi-driver father. The book…
Viv Albertine
Viv Albertine announced herself as a writer with Clothes, Music, Boys, her hit memoir about life in the punk band The Slits. Now she probes deeper into her background in To Throw Away Unopened, part radical reinvention of the memoir form; part feminist manifesto; part domestic noir; part polemic on motherhood.In conversation with Erica Wagner, she…
Peter Bunzl
Join Peter Bunzl, author of Cogheart and Moonlocket, to talk about all things adventure: the dangerous and daring books and films that inspired his books, and how the very best adventure books create a whole world for the reader to explore.How did Peter paint such a vivid world in Cogheart? Where did this filmic style come from?Hear about Peter’s childhood…
Xylouris White
A passion for exploration comes naturally to this visionary duo formed of Cretan lute player George Xylouris and Australian post-punk drummer Jim White (Dirty Three). Combining free-jazz, avant-rock and ages-old Greek folk traditions, their 2014 debut album Goats topped the Billboard World Music chart. Two years later, they showed how far their horizons…
Coat
Picture this: Nigeria. A grandmother passes. London, a son cooks a pot of stew for his mother hoping to uncover hidden stories and unanswered questions.“Home is no stranger, you are an African man and you have responsibilities as the eldest grandchild” Yomi Sode's hit show tackles immigration, identity and displacement. COAT is a humorous and moving…
Cerrie Burnell
Minnow, a girl with incredible underwater ability, goes on a journey from Brighton to Barbados on a mission to rescue her mother. Will she survive the enchanted creatures and pirates she meets? Join former CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell as she presents her magical novel The Girl with the Shark’s Teeth. Cerrie will share her top storytelling tips,…
Eye to Eye
‘You know, everybody in the world used to be a child, or is a child.’After craving music during pregnancy, writer and theatre-maker Sheila Hill embarked on a quest to make a work about motherhood. Sheila’s diaries, from the first seven years of her son’s life, are the starting point for this extraordinary musical collaboration. Eye to Eye brings…
Flavour Migrations
In the recent storm of migration debates, the focus placed on the negative can make us forget that Britain is a much nicer place to eat right now. Founder of Southampton’s Lakaz Maman in 2016, Shelina Permalloo is one of the reasons that this is true.After wowing TV judges and over 6.5 million viewers to win BBC’s MasterChef in 2012, Shelina published…
Né So
Rokia Traoré, Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2019, is a musician of incredible stylistic range and depth, but she is at her core Malian. It is a mark of her engagement with her role at Brighton Festival that she has chosen to open the programme with Né So (the word for home in her native Bambara), a highly energised and personal work. In it, she…
Hot Brown Honey
The award-winning firecracker of a show that’s taken the world by storm is coming to Brighton Festival. Hot Brown Honey turns up the heat with lashings of sass and a hot pinch of empowerment. Steeped in the Word of The Mother and packing a punch of hip-hop politics, this genre-defying mix of cabaret, music and dance will make you laugh until you cry,…
Kit de Waal
The New Writing South Statement provides a platform for an eminent writer to share ideas, articulate passions, and initiate debate on aspects of the power and position of literature in the world. The series returns to Brighton Festival and we are delighted to welcome writer, activist and Common People editor Kit De Waal to deliver the New Writing…
Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy
Under 18’s attending performances and activities Parents/carers are responsible for their children at all times when they attend an event. Parents/carers must be fit to supervise and care for their children. Our Safeguarding Policy permits staff to challenge those who may be unfit at events and involve the Police if necessary.Please remember…
Privacy Policy
Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival (Brighton Dome and Festival Ltd – BDBF) is committed to protecting your privacy and conforms to the terms of the 1998 Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, and from May 25th 2018, the General Data Protection regulation (GDPR) 2018. The personal information that you…
Accessibility
What we offer and further informationDetailed information for your next visit Scroll to the end of this page for more for our Access Statement and how to get here We offer:Wheelchair-accessible foyers, ticket offices, bars & auditoriumDiscounts (subject to availability)Complimentary access assistant ticketsAccessible toiletsLiftsAssistance…
Get involved: Wonderful ways to be part of Brighton Festival
There are plenty of wonderful ways to get involved with Brighton Festival and we’d love you to be part of it. We’ve tonnes of volunteer and artist opportunities - we’ve got options for writers and readers, performers and greeters and treasure seekers and culture needers, not to mention, there’ll be heaps of competitions to enter over the coming weeks.Peacock…
Video: Squarepusher - Most Valid Reason
Producer, bass virtuoso, composer and sound artist, Squarepusher aka Tom Jenkinson has constantly strived to push the boundaries and limits of music, drawing on influences as broad as drum and bass, acid house, jazz and electroacoustic music - with pretty incredible results. Watch him now in this new video performing Most Valid Reason via VICE Japan…
Feathered Facts: 15 things you never knew about starlings, swifts and nightingales…
Does life imitate art or does art imitate life? This year's Brighton Festival celebrates, in as many ways as birds have songs, the vital crossovers between nature and the arts. Starlings, swifts and nightingales feature in a number of events this May and in this series of posts we celebrate our feathered friends with some fascinating facts…This years'…
Feathered Facts: 15 more things you never knew about swifts…
This year we draw inspiration from the avian world - starlings, swifts and nightingales feature in several Brighton Festival events this May. In this series of posts we celebrate our feathered friends with some fascinating facts. This week we explore the lives of swifts - read on to discover 15 more things you never knew about these birds…Swift nests…
Eclectic beats and kaleidoscopic visuals: Get ready for a journey through sound and space with Squarepusher
Legendary electronic producer Squarepusher joins us at Brighton Festival with new album, Damogen Furies. With a career spanning 20 years, and 14 albums under his belt, he remains at the forefront of the electronic scene - constantly pushing the boundaries with his unique sound and approach to performance. Damogen Furies was created using instruments,…
Call out for artists to participate in caravan marketplace 2016
caravan is a three-day showcase of site specific, interactive and incidental performance presented as part of Brighton Festival that aims to strengthen the international networks and expand the range of opportunities for performing artists and companies in England to work abroad. The curated programme features England’s most exciting artists…
caravan 2016 programme announced
caravan, a partnership between Farnham Maltings and Brighton Festival presents a three-day biennial curated showcase of the best new theatre from across England to an international audience of festival organisers and programmers. This press release announces its 2016 programme.caravan 2016 will take place on 15-17 May 2016 as part of the 50th Brighton…
Festival Hot Seat ... Zvizdal
We catch up with Yves Degryse, Artistic Director of Berlin, who are bringing their ‘filmic portrait’ Zvizdal (Chernobyl – so far so close) to Brighton FestivalCan you tell us what your show is about?Over four years we have been filming near Chernobyl in the forbidden zone. Each time we went it was to meet two people, Petro and Nadia, a couple…
Interview: Stewart Hurwood on Lou Reed Drones
'I like to think of it as a sonic massage…'How did you meet Lou Reed and how long did you work with him?I worked with Lou Reed for the last ten years of his life. I became his right-hand man handling many more things than just his guitars, equipment and managing the stages he played on.What was Lou like to work with?Lou was very demanding on everyone…
Record-breaking 50th Brighton Festival comes to a dazzling conclusion
The three week celebration of the arts was the most successful in its history with more people engaging with the festival, both as audiences and participants, and more tickets sold than ever before.Drawing inspiration from Brighton Festival’s origins as a celebration of the new and the avant-garde, as well as Guest Director Laurie Anderson’s own multidisciplinary…
Volunteer call-out: For the Birds
Take part in an immersive night time adventure where sound and light take flight!Brighton Festival is taking to the Sussex woodland to create an enchanting journey for our guests to explore a world of sound and vision across May.We are inviting volunteers to be part of our friendly front of house team for this mesmerising event. Every Wed - Sun throughout…
Interview: Eddie Otchere
Best known for his photographs depicting hip hop culture since the 1990s, acclaimed photographer Eddie Otchere will be creating The Bright Room, a community darkroom at Brighton Festival. We caught up with Eddie to find out moreCan you tell us about your involvement in Brighton Festival this year? How did it come about?My involvement with the Brighton…
Your Place returns for Brighton Festival 2018
Brighton Festival’s Your Place - two weekends of free entertainment in Hangleton and East Brighton, delivered in partnership with Brighton People’s Theatre - is set to return for 2018 following last year’s inaugural programme.Hosted by local community centres, and programmed in collaboration with local residents and artists, Your Place brought a diverse…
Five of the Best…Feminist Festival events
To coincide with International Women’s Day - a global celebration of the economic, cultural, social and political achievements of women that takes place on 8 March each year - we shine a light on just a few of the many amazing female fronted events at this year’s Festival. Les Amazones d’Afrique Les Amazones d'Afrique is a supergroup of 10 incredible…
Your Place artist Kate McCoy on neighbourhoods, Pritt Sticks & shared landmarks
Your Place is a partnership project run by the Brighton Festival, Brighton People's Theatre and two resident led, community development projects on either side of the city: Due East and the Hangleton and Knoll Project. With a steering group of local people from both communities over the last year to co-programme and co-design Your Place for the 2018…
David Shrigley on Brighton Festival 2018
We chatted to David Shrigley about his experience guest directing this year's Brighton Festival. Here's what he thought...When we asked what had prompted you to say yes to being Guest Director, you said that you thought it would be fun. How have you found the experience of guest directing Brighton Festival?The experience of guest directing the Brighton…
Enjoy the Springtime with our Outdoor Events
Spring is on its way to welcome the 2019 Brighton Festival, and there is no better way to enjoy the sunshine than by checking out our range of dynamic outdoor events!This year, we have a huge variety of activities, performances, and exhibits hitting the streets of Brighton. Perfect for families and individuals who fancy taking part in the festival…
Five Minutes with Dan Canham: SESSION
SESSION is an explosive outdoor gathering of dance, and live music, Dan Canham has brought together the domineering troupes Still House, Steppaz Performing Arts Academy and Afrobeats to create an exhilarating, adrenaline-fuelled event that you won't want to miss. In between practices, we grabbed Dan for a quick interview to tell us more. Firstly,…
Phillip Morgan shares fond memories of Brighton Festival
Phillip Morgan, a long-standing employee of Brighton Festival looks back at his fondest memories...When I was asked to write and deliver a talk on the history of Brighton Festival I agreed promptly. Being a freelance writer I’m always looking for the next job but I didn’t realise the extent to which this would become part of my own personal history.…
Must-See Events at Brighton Festival’s Opening Weekend
At last, Brighton Festival is just around the corner! With a jam-packed opening weekend – here’s a quick rundown of what’s happening...Saturday 4 MayNé SoBy now you should be aware of our incredible festival guest director Rokia Traoré, but if you are not, here’s a brief rundown: Rokia is a world-famous Malian musician, known for her incredible range…
Amadou & Mariam and the Blind Boys of Alabama
Malian duo Amadou & Mariam will be performing with Grammy award-winning the Blind Boys of Alabama exclusively at Brighton Festival in May ahead of their London date.Amadou & Mariam made a name for themselves playing Malian blues. They have released a string of acclaimed albums, working with producers such as Manu Chao and…
Brighton Festival 2020 Highlights
The acclaimed British and Ethiopian poet, playwright, broadcaster and speaker, Lemn Sissay MBE has launched Brighton Festival 2020 welcoming everyone to the Imagine Nation from 2 to 24 May 2020. Since it was first established in 1967, Brighton Festival has given artists and performers at the cutting edge of artistic practice and on the edge of society,…
£10 and Under Events at Brighton Festival
Discover a whole range of theatre, art, film, music, spoken word, dance and family events for £10 or under at Brighton Festival this May. The Sleeping TreeSat 2-Sun 25 MayDon’t miss out on this multi-sensory experience. Enter one of the last great rainforests of North Sumatra, Indonesia, and follow a family of endangered Siamang Gibbons as…
10 Must-see Art exhibitions in Brighton This May
Discover a range of art events and exhibitions happening in Brighton and beyond throughout May. Washed Up Car-go | FreeSat 2-Sun 24 MayHove WarehouseArtist Chris Dobrowolski’s playfully thought-provoking Washed Up Car-go features iconic Brighton landscapes, film, music, toy sea creatures and a lot of local pebbles to ask us to think…
Thank you for your support
It is with great sadness that we have had to close the doors of Brighton Dome and cancel Brighton Festival in light of the current climate. As you can imagine, this wasn’t an easy decision to make but something we felt was right for not only our audience but staff and artists involved. Since sharing this difficult news, we have…
Children’s Parade at Home Sat 2 May, 10.30am for 5 minutes
Help us keep the spirit of the Children’s Parade alive this year and have your own mini parades at home! All of us at Brighton Festival, and our artists at Same Sky were so sad to cancel this year’s Parade, that when received an email from Tobias at Balfour Primary asking if the parade could happen in a different way, we could not resist…
HOME: THE MUSEUM OF ORDINARY PEOPLE (MOOP) and MNEMOSCENE
Discover fascinating stories of ordinary people in this immersive exhibition
Theatre Royal Brighton
New Road BN1 1SD
Tell Me Something About Family
Lemn Sissay's new project, lighting up the world with stories, phrases and sayings about family
Semiconductor in conversation with Ariane Koek
A talk from artists Semiconductor, as part of the HALO talks & workshops programme
The Air Itself is One Vast Library
Mariele Neudecker explores the disturbing – and often invisible – technologies of war in an exhibition that contrasts starkly with her more familiar depictions of landscape and the sublimity of nature. The startling images in The Air Itself is One Vast Library were created following extensive research at military installations. This is a highly topical…
BBC Symphony Orchestra
James Gaffigan conductor Veronika Eberle violinK.A. Hartmann Symphony No. 2, ‘Adagio’ Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64 Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor Op. 8The orchestra of the First and Last Nights of the BBC Proms makes a rare visit to Brighton for this exclusive concert. The programme encapsulates the grace and the grandeur of the…
Polly Dunbar
Polly Dunbar would love to introduce you to the stars of the hit Cbeebies show Tilly and Friends. The best-selling author and illustrator created the characters in six charming books which are all about Tilly and the friends she lives with in the Little Yellow House. Before you know it you’ll be drawing, singing and dancing the Wiggle Wiggle Woo. You…
Captain Blood’s Revenge: A Pirate Opera
Lynne PlowmanMartin RileyBold, boisterous and bags of fun, Captain Blood’s Revenge combines adventure, mystery and a bit of spookiness in a tale of buccaneering high jinks that we can all join in.As if Salty Sue doesn’t have enough to cope with as landlady of The Blasted Bilge Rat, a rowdy harbourside inn, her daughter Pegatty is a real piratical handful…
Jan Pienkowski with Michael Rosen
Join us after Captain Blood's Revenge for a post-show talk with illustrator Jan Pienkowski (Meg and Mog, Haunted House) in conversation with Michael Rosen.Our Meet the Artists series is your chance to interact with our Festival artists and companies beyond the shows, through a range of facilitated pre-show talks, post-show discussions and Morning After…
During last year’s Festival The Boat Project collected donations of cherished wooden memories ranging from lollypop sticks and cellos to part of a torpedo boat used at the D-Day landings in 1945. This year, the fearlessly adventurous crew return with this extraordinary seafaring vessel Collective Spirit and with it a living archive of people’s stories…
Camille O'Sullivan
The queen of sultry glamour returns for some bittersweet vocal seduction in this special intimate performance following the release of her new album in May.Camille O’Sullivan has carved out a highly distinctive career as a singular interpreter of dramatic narrative song. From the cabaret chic of Jacques Brel and Kurt Weill to the shadowy world of Tom…
James Vincent McMorrow
Early in the Morning – the haunting debut album from Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow – was born of isolation. McMorrow, like Bon Iver before him – holed up in a remote house (on the Irish coast) with his guitar, laptop, microphone and a head full of Steinbeck and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The result – an intimate and literate mix…
Gold Run
In the stadium, learning-disabled athletes are training hard. But can their coach lead them on to win the ultimate prize? The highs and lows of their journey to the peak of sporting achievement are charted in this brand-new show inspired by the history of the Paralympic Games.After a 12 year absence following the Sydney 2000 controversy London 2012…
The British Library
As the lead artist for this year’s HOUSE, Yinka Shonibare MBE’s new sculptural installation explores the impact of immigration on all aspects of British culture and considers notions of territory and place, cultural identity, displacement and refuge.The shelves of the Old Reference Library are filled with books colourfully bound in Shonibare’s trademark…
Talvin Singh’s Bombay Talkies
Talvin Singh tabla Roopa Panesar sitarMeg-Rosaleen Hamilton violinZosia Jagodzinska celloChiranjib Chakraborty vocalOne of the most influential figures in British Asian music, Talvin Singh, celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema with this blend of film and live music. The Mercury Prize-winner and master of the tabla has assembled a cross-cultural line-up…
Angie Sage
Come and meet bestselling author Angie Sage as she talks about the Araminta Spook series. Araminta is a girl who lives in a haunted house, has ghosts and ghouls for friends, and gets up to all sorts of spooky adventures. In this fiendishly fun event, find out where Araminta came from, where this feisty goth girl is going next and how…
Leah Gordon
John Cussans and Leah Gordon explore the themes in Gordon’s work and the wider social and political circumstances in Haitian history that inform it.John Cussans is an artist, writer, independent researcher and educator. He participated in the Ghetto Biennale in Haiti and began a number of joint projects with local video collective, Tele Geto.This is…
Phillip Hall-Patch
Phillip Hall-Patch talks about his new work Salt Field, his thinking behind it and the role of salt throughout history in economic and cultural terms.Dr Mary Anne Francis is Course Leader for the MRes in Arts and Cultural Research at the University of Brighton. She has a significant reputation as an artist, practice-based researcher and art-writer.…
Get It Together
Has the NHS had its day? Has an immigrant stolen your job? Have you ever wondered why you can’t afford a house, and who got us into this mess anyway? The Guardian columnist Zoe Williams believes that we must act collectively to make the future fairer and happier.Pacey, conversational and funny, Get It Together is Zoe’s rousing call for us all to play…
Fragments - Volume I
A vital presence on the North American and European dance scene and artistic collaborator for Lorin Maazel Opera's 1984 (Royal Opera House), Sylvain Émard cultivates a powerful and physical choreographic style, with a repertoire of more than 30 dance pieces.In this captivating collage of short pieces (solos and duets), Émard captures the distinctive…
Tricky
Tricky makes complicated music because Adrian Thaws has had a complicated life, growing up in an extended family that was both black and white, urban and rural, containing strong women and volatile men. It’s typical of one of music’s most unpredictable characters that the first album to bear his birth name is one of his least introspective. ‘Calling…
Squarepusher
Since his earliest sonic experiments in the 1990s, revered producer, bass virtuoso, composer and sound artist Squarepusher aka Tom Jenkinson has constantly strived to push the boundaries and limits of music, drawing on influences as broad as drum and bass, acid house, jazz and electroacoustic music. Last year, he collaborated with a team of Japanese…
Of Riders and Running Horses
Under the cover of darkness, we find a space in the margins of the city in which to gather: to start an ad hoc ceremony, to stamp our feet and shake our limbs. Join a group of female dancers and a live band as they conjure a new kind of old dance, an insistent rhythm, a joyful step into what it means to move together. Of Riders and Running Horses…
Haçienda Classical
The DJs who shaped the Haçienda sound, Graeme Park and Mike Pickering, will perform a continuous set of house and club classics alongside the Manchester Camerata Orchestra and special guests.Taking the euphoria of the legendary club nights to a whole new level, Haçienda Classical is a unique meeting of styles.
African Dance Party
Contemporary Africa with Sharp Dress and Sounds – Come to Dance!After its huge success in 2014, our night of contemporary African rhythms returns. Our headliner is Spoek Mathambo, one of South Africa’s most forward-thinking and imaginative artists. As part of Fantasma, he explored a style described as Guzu, fusing traditional South African styles with…
Music For Dogs
This event will go ahead as planned at Brighton Open Air Theatre tonight. Please dress for the weather.‘Wouldn’t it be great if you’re playing a concert and you look out and everyone’s a dog,’ Laurie Anderson mused while waiting backstage with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. True to form, Anderson made her outlandish dream come true: first at the Sydney Opera…
I Fagiolini
Robert Hollingworth DirectorWith the English Cornett and Sackbut EnsembleMonteverdiDixit DominusConfi tebor tibi DomineBeatus VirLaudate PueriLaudate DominumUt queant laxisSalve, O ReginaGabrieli Magnificat in 14 partsPalestrina/Bovicelli Divisions on 'Ave verum corpus'Castello Violin SonataViadana Deus in adiutoriumIn the first of two concerts at…
The Gabriels: What Did You Expect?
'Nelson's triptych... feels like a theatrical miracle. With the simplest of ingredients, it conjures an entire world in front of your eyes and fills it with teeming life' What's On Stage ★★★★★ In the second play of The Gabriels, the country is now in the midst of a Presidential election campaign. In the course of one evening in the house…
SESSION
In this explosive outdoor gathering, Bristol based performance company Still House joins forces with the Tottenham-based Steppaz Performing Arts Academy and north London’s music production powerhouse Empire Sounds to create a high-energy night of dance and live music. Part gig, part social and part dance party, the show is led by an ensemble of young…
Varhung: Heart to Heart
Ancient Taiwanese cultural traditions are brought up to date by one of the Pacific island's premier indigenous dance-theatre companies. Tjimur presents a richly patterned, open-hearted performance that shows how the Paiwan people, not used to discussing private feelings, use artforms to bring them to the surface. Working in close collaboration…
Your Sexts Are Shit: Older Better Letters
Rachel Mars is on a mission – she’s unearthing the hot-as-hell letters from history that make sexts blush. Before tech, there were hand-written letters. And loads of them were proper filthy.Come! Take pleasure in James Joyce’s passion for arse, find out who sneaked her gay lover into the White House and bear witness to the best/worst sexts ever sent.This…
Clem and Crab
Author and illustrator Fiona Lumbers brings the exciting adventures of Clem and Crab to life. Clem is an explorer, a collector, a protector of the seas. Treasure hunting on her beloved beach, she stumbles across Crab, his claw stuck in a plastic bag. Crab will be much safer and happier at Clem’s house, but doesn’t he belong on the beach?A timely story…
Semiconductor in conversation with Ariane Koek
A chance to hear the Brighton based internationally acclaimed artists Semiconductor discuss their creative practice with Ariane Koek, founder of Arts at CERN, creative producer and curator in the fields of arts, science and technology. Book HereSemiconductor is UK artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. Over the past twenty years of collaboration…
COVID-19 FAQ
Brighton Festival 2021 COVID-19 Public Safety FAQs This information applies to all participating venues and locations being used for Brighton Festival 2021 events. Information correct as of 26 March 2021, some information will be subject to change and will be updated and published on our website: brightonfestival.orgHow is Brighton Festival…