The Brighton Festival is running this year from May 4 to May 26 across 25 venues in Brighton, Hove and Sussex. The full programme of events was released on February 13 by Malian musician Rokia Traoré detailing the diverse 130 events with performers from over 20 countries.

Brighton Festival is known to be ‘the largest and most established curated multi-arts festival in England’. The popular festival can be seen at iconic Brighton venues such as the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton Dome, Duke’s at Komedia to name a few.

The festival emphasises the importance of respect for all cultures as well as nurturing the next generation of artists. Guest Director of the festival this year is Rokia Traoré, who will perform exclusively three times during the festival. This will include performing the critically acclaimed album Né So with her blues rock band. Rokia Traoré stated “As Guest Director, I set out to bring new voices to the city to tell their stories. Understanding other cultures is so important to the world that we live in and it brings me great joy to shed light on some unexpected voices through this opportunity.”

A major donor to this Festival is the University of Sussex. The Festival will see multiple events being held at the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts (ACCA) on the University of Sussex Campus.

Brighton Festival celebrates the life of Maya Angelou five years after her death. Maya Angelou was a seminal African American poet and civil rights activists and made appearances at Brighton Festival several times. To mark her death and celebrate her life, Brighton Festival will host three tributes: Caged Birds Do, Still I Rise and New Daughters of Africa.

The Festival will also include free and participatory activities for all ages. The start of the festival will be marked by the annual Children’s Parade with Same Sky with the theme of global folk tales.

The Brighton Festival is run by the Brighton Dome. This is a different event to the Brighton Fringe Festival which happens at different venues, most notably The Warren. The two series of events happen at the same time as is similar to the same events in Edinburgh.  Brighton Fringe happens at the same time but they are separate. All happen at different venues including some

More information and the full programme can be found at: brightonfestival.org

 

Image Credit: Brighton Festival

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