As we all know, May is a huge month in Brighton’s calendar, but as it’s sadly drawing to a close, we decided to have a look back at some of the highlights of the Brighton Festival, which is undeniably one of the city’s most exciting events.
This year we were lucky enough to see a local Guest Director, David Shrigley, who was the festival’s most hands on and present directors Brighton Festival has seen to date, in turn encouraging visitors and locals alike to get involved in their scores.
The Chief Executive of Brighton Festival, Andrew Comben, has said that this year’s festival has “had more opportunities than ever for everyone to get involved and participate”. One of the festival’s greatest triumphs in participation was led by David Shrigley himself: over 12,500 people took part in his life drawing classes, Life Model II that ran throughout the festival. Another enormous participation success came with ‘Three Score Dance’s performance of The Nelken Line on Brighton seafront, which saw 200 local residents join in, which you can read more about here.
Another enormously successful event that attracted hordes of viewers was the internationally renowned NoFit State circus, who, over eleven nights drew in over 9,700 people, who were wowed by the circus’s incredible show in a big top circus tent on Hove Lawns.
Brighton Festival was also awash with free events for everyone to experience, such as A Piece of 2, an amazing rock balancing performance on the seafront, by Nick Steur, which attracted many passers by during the gloriously sunny first week of the Festival. The Children’s Parade was another fantastic free event that kicked off the Festival, and was enjoyed by crowds throughout the city.
Aside from events themselves, there is no denying that one of Brighton Festival’s greatest successes this year was their Pay-It-Forward scheme. This scheme, carried on from last year, offered everyone who purchased a ticket for Brighton Festival to pay an extra £5 – or whatever amount they liked – on top of the price of their ticket, which Brighton Festival would then match. As a result of this 1,1175 tickets were offered out to those who may have otherwise not had to opportunity to attend events at Brighton Festival for themselves.
When speaking about Brighton Festival, David Shrigley has said that “It’s been a real privilege to be part of the Festival in such a big way, and to have met so many people. I feel very lucky.”
We already can’t wait to welcome the amazing Brighton Festival back to the city next year!
