Brighton Fringe Widens Access to the Arts with Bursaries and New ‘Freedom Season’

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Brighton Fringe work year-round to help people produce creative work through the extensive, free, Fringe Academy workshops, an open access program and over £25,000 in financial support available to local, national and international artists. Seeking to create a vibrant and inclusive community, events are either free or low cost allowing as many people as possible to enjoy them.

Bursary schemes, which support artists and performers with the costs of travel, marketing, accommodation, venue hire, registration fees, props, materials and general living expenses have been awarded in partnership with local businesses and foundations. This allows those with passion and talent to participate without prohibitive costs. Please see below for a full list of the winners.

Window, Brighton Fringe’s in-house bursary and a showcase for rising talent, runs from 4 -10 May. It aims to support and promote artists to help them progress to the next level of their careers. Window is an annual highlight of the Fringe program, attracting industry professionals including venue and festival programmers, development agencies, talent agencies, freelance producers, directors, casting agents for film and TV producers.

The inaugural Freedom Season, dedicated to removing barriers for those with physical or invisible disabilities to attend and perform, sees Brighton Fringe working with participating venues to actively accommodate those requiring wheelchair access, hearing loops and disabled toilets as standard, as well as a range of additional assistance available including captioned performances and language-free. Freedom Season venues include Purple Playhouse Theatre, The Old Market, Brighton Open Air Theatre, Komedia and Sallis Benney Theatre.

Freedom Season includes everything from a relaxed open day at Brighton Buddhist Centre to a surreal, one-man show updating Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as well as cabaret, music and storytelling.

Julian Caddy, Managing Director of Brighton Fringe, commented, “We’re really proud of what we do to widen access to the arts. We’ve got some particularly exciting partnerships this year, such as the Fringe Excellence program which brings two of the top shows from Edinburgh Fringe down to Brighton to perform.

“It’s a pleasure to support such rich talent, both locally and internationally, and ‘Freedom Season’, bursaries and Fringe Academy are all really important aspects of this.”

Featured image by ReflectedSerendipity

To see venues, times and prices for the shows and events mentioned in this release please see www.brightonfringe.org

Brighton Fringe background information

Brighton Fringe is an open-access arts festival held annually in Brighton, England. Dating back to 1967, it became a registered charity in 2006. It is the largest annual arts festival in England and one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. Brighton Fringe 2018 will take place from 4 May – 3 June 2018. Currently the programme of 2018 includes over 4000 performances at 155 venues across 4 weeks.

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2017 saw a record-breaking audience with over half a million people attending, bringing an estimated £15.8 million to the local economy. Nearly 1000 events took place covering theatre, dance, cabaret, music, visual arts and more.

Activity also includes Fringe City, a free event taking place in the New Road, every weekend in May.

Featured image by ReflectedSerendipity

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