Our Place is starting again this May, hosting two free weekends of free festival fun for the communities of East Brighton and Hangelton. The events will include live music, dance, art, games, workshops, and entertainment for all the family.
Back in 2017 Kate Tempest, who was The Brighton Festival Fringe Director, was inspired to put together ‘Your Place’. Her aim was to create a project that brought Brighton Festival out into the communities of Brighton, including people that might not otherwise be able to participate in the cultural and artistic events.
After two successful years and an increase in partnership from people in the community, Your Place has changed it’s name to Our Place. The new name reflects the local people who have been involved in running the project. This year, events will take place at Manor Gym on Saturday the 18th of May, from 11 am, and at Hangleton Community Centre on Saturday the 25 of May, from 10 am
Andrew Comben, who is the Chief Executive of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival wholly supports ‘Our Place’ and has said:
“Bringing Brighton Festival together each year is a great privilege but it’s vital that the Festival continues to reflect and involve the whole city. One of the key things about Our Place is that the communities have been really engaged in planning and managing the project and it felt really important to be able to build on this work and the relationships we have developed again this year. Our hope is that this project will continue to grow and become something that everyone looks forward to each year.”
All events are free, and open for anyone to get involved. Whether you are interested in wheelchair tango dancing, community craftism, a time travel treasure hunt or a virtual reality underwater experience, there is a space for everyone.
Nicole Monney, who is a community worker for Hangleton & Knoll Project has said:
The Our Place steering committee is made up of local residents and organisations, from a diverse range of backgrounds, experience and skills. We want there to be opportunities in our community that everyone can enjoy, and where cost and location isn’t a barrier. This is the third year we’ve been involved, we learn something new every time and have seen it getting bigger and better. We really hope that residents and visitors discover something they’ll really enjoy!”
The list of Our Place events this year is available here.
Kate Tempest performs spoken word and writes poetry, plays, and novels. In 2013 she won the Ted Hughes Award, her debut novel The Bricks that Built The Houses was a Sunday Times Bestseller and she was also nominated as Best Female Solo Performer at the 2018 Brit awards.
“It’s on us, the people at the bottom to fix things for ourselves even though it’s us who suffer the decisions of the people at the top the most”
― Kate Tempest (The Bricks That Built The Houses)
