Brighton Festival is a large, annual, curated multi-arts festival in England, first held in 1967. It includes music, theatre, dance, circus, art, film, literature, debate, outdoor and family events, and takes place in venues in the city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...

in East Sussex, 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 inaugural 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 Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 191612 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. ...

. 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, the Brighton Festival celebrated its 50th year. The festival's biggest talking point was Nutkhut's ''Dr Blighty'', 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 Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work encompasses performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting,Amirkhanian, Cha ...

's unique ''Music for Dogs'', a concert specially designed for the canine ear; the UK premiere of ''

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

Drones'', an installation of Anderson's late husband's guitars and amps in feedback mode, which she described as "kind of as close to Lou's music as we can get these days", a re-enactment of every onstage death from the plays of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

from Brighton-based

Spymonkey Spymonkey is an international comedy and physical theatre company, based in Brighton. Its members are Toby Park and Petra Massey, both British, Aitor Basauri, a Spaniard, and Stephan Kreiss (1962-2021), a German. According to the theatre director ...

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.

Guest directors

Each year since 2009, the festival has appointed a guest artistic director. *2009: Anish Kapoor *2010:

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

*2011:

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Myanmar), Ministe ...

*2012: Vanessa Redgrave *2013: Michael Rosen *2014: Hofesh Shechter *2015: Ali Smith *2016:

*2017: Kae Tempest *2018: David Shrigley *2019: Rokia Traoré *2020: Cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

; Lemn Sissay was to direct *2021: Lemn Sissay *2022: Marwa Al-Sabouni and Tristan Sharps *2023: Nabihah Iqbal *2024: Frank Cottrell-Boyce

References

External links

Brighton Festival
– official website
Brighton Festival Chorus
– website for separate element of the Brighton Festival {{Brighton and Hove 1966 establishments in England Arts festivals in England Festivals established in 1966 Festivals in Brighton and Hove Music in Brighton and Hove

History

Guest directors

See also

References

External links