Brighton Festival

The largest and most established annual curated multi-arts festival in England, Brighton Festival is a celebration of music, theatre, dance, circus, art, film, literature, debate, outdoor and family events, which takes place in venues both familiar and unusual in the city of Brighton and Hove in England each May.

History

In 1964 the first moves were made to hold a Festival in Brighton, and Ian Hunter, the eventual artistic director of the festival, submitted a programme of ideas. This was followed by a weekend conference in 1965, and the Board of the Brighton Festival Society was born. The first festival was held in 1967, and included the first ever exhibition of Concrete poetry in the UK, alongside performances by Laurence Olivier and Yehudi Menuhin.

In the introduction to the 1968 Festival programme, Ian Hunter explained the original intentions of the festival: “The aim of the Brighton Festival is to stimulate townsfolk and visitors into taking a new look at the arts and to give them the opportunity to assess developments in the field of culture where the serious and the apparently flippant ride side by side.”

In 2016 Brighton Festival celebrated its 50th year. The festival's biggest talking point was Nutkhut's Dr Blighty,[1] an ambitious, large-scale, free immersive, outdoor experience co-commissioned in partnership with Royal Pavilion & Museums and 14-18 NOW, which highlighted the story of wounded Indian soldiers hospitalised in Brighton during WW1. Ending each night with a spectacular light display using projection-mapping, Dr Blighty set the city and social media abuzz and drew audiences of almost 65,000 over its five-day run.

The festival regularly commissions new work from some artists and companies. The 2016 Brighton Festival featured 54 commissions, co-commissions, exclusives and premieres including the UK premiere of Laurie Anderson's unique Music for Dogs[2], a concert specially designed for the canine ear; the UK premiere of Lou Reed Drones,[3] an installation of Anderson's late husband's guitars and amps in feedback mode which she describes as "kind of as close to Lou's music as we can get these days",[4] a re-enactment of every onstage death from the plays of Shakespeare from Brighton-based Spymonkey and Tim Crouch; and Blast Theory & Hydrocracker's immersive undercover police drama Operation Black Antler.

In 2020, the festival was cancelled for the first time in its history as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[5]

Guest directors

Each year since 2009 the festival has appointed a guest artistic director.

See also

References
  1. "BBC Arts – How Dr Blighty shone a light on WW1 Indian soldiers at Brighton Royal Pavilion – BBC Arts". BBC. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  2. Concert designed for dogs shown at The Brighton Festival, 11 May 2016, retrieved 4 January 2017
  3. "Lou Reed Drones, BBC Arts – BBC Arts". BBC. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  4. Dickson, Andrew (9 May 2016). "Is this a bloodbath I see before me? The 75 deaths of Shakespeare". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  5. Hemley, Matthew (18 March 2020). "Coronavirus: Brighton Festival cancelled for first time in its history, as fringe is postponed". The Stage. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  6. Conrad, Peter (3 May 2009). "Round and round the gardens ..." The Guardian.
  7. Green, Thomas H (2 April 2010). "Brian Eno on the Brighton Festival". The Daily Telegraph.
  8. Toynbee, Polly (16 April 2011). "Saturday interview: Aung San Suu Kyi". The Guardian.
  9. "Vanessa Redgrave leads parade to open Brighton Festival". BBC News. 5 May 2012.
  10. "Brighton festival 2013 takes off, with Michael Rosen at helm". The Guardian. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2013. this year's Brighton festival, which is guest-directed by author, broadcaster and former children's laureate Michael Rosen.
  11. James, Ben (26 September 2013). "Brighton Festival's next guest director is revealed as Hofesh Shechter". The Argus.
  12. Green, Thomas (18 February 2015). "Brighton Festival 2015 Launches with Guest Director Ali Smith". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  13. Brown, Mark (7 January 2016). "Laurie Anderson to direct 2016 Brighton festival". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  14. Eede, Christian (21 September 2016). "Next Year's Brighton Festival Curator Announced". The Quietus. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  15. "Brighton Festival names visual artist David Shrigley as 2018 Guest Director". Brighton Festival website. 4 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  16. "Malian singer Rokia Traore announced as Festival guest director for 2019". The Argus. 11 October 2018.
  17. Bastable, Bex (5 December 2019). "Brighton Festival: Award-winning poet is named as guest director for 2020". Eastbourne Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
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