For my travel post this month I was hoping to tell you about a trip up the i360, but that keeps getting put off because of the weather. Apparently this weekend we are due to face Storm Dennis, which as long term readers will know, is an every day occurrence in my house.
One event I did make it to this week was the official launch of Brighton Festival.
Brighton Festival is the biggest and most established annual multi-arts festival in England. This year it’s running from 2nd to 24th May. I was going to pick out my top 5 favourite events, but honestly, it was too hard to pick. The 2020 programme is the most interesting I’ve seen in years, for which we must thank guest director Lemn Sissay.
Lemn spoke at the launch, and I was really blown away by his infectious passion for the imagination. The impression I got is that the events are designed not just to entertain but to inspire the audience too. We are all a part of the Imagine Nation.
However, by the time I looked through the programme and picked out all the stuff I wanted to see (Eight Kate Bushes! Spaceships by the sea!) I realised I would have to sell a child, or at least stop feeding one of them, to be able to make it along to everything.
So for those of us in Brighton and visiting (and yes, you really should visit) here are 5 free Brighton Festival events that I hope you will enjoy:
- Artists’ Open Houses – Artists open their houses all over Brighton every weekend in May and invite anybody in for a nosy. Really interesting and a lot of fun.
- The Young Americans – Lemn Sissay was full of praise for this exhibition of work by today’s generation of Indigenous American artists. That’ll do for me.
- Arrivals & Departures – A public artwork about birth and death and the journey in between. Anyone can participate and add the name of a loved one. Find out more here.
- The Children’s Parade – If you’re coming in to Brighton on the 2nd of May you’ll find the streets taken over by the Children’s Parade, which this year is themed around Nature’s Marvels. Now that my children are older I don’t have to take part in this, but like every parent in Brighton I have done my time making a giant paper mache octopus and then parading through the streets with it whilst blowing a whistle.
- A Weekend Without Walls – This sounds like an ‘expect the unexpected’ kind of treat, which is my favourite type. There will be pop up performances on the beach from hip hop to circus and probably some whistles. They get everywhere.
Find out more
The full list of free events at Brighton Festival 2020 is here. These events are just the tip of the iceberg because during May you will find an unexpected performance around every corner in Brighton.
Also, check out these events which are are all £10 and under