A major fixture in the Brighton Festival Fringe calendar has been scrapped.

Organisers say Fringe Street will not go ahead this year as they want to focus more on performers taking part in the Fringe.

In the past the event has been held on the last bank holiday weekend of May and has been the culmination of the Fringe City events, which take place in the streets of Brighton every weekend during the festival.

Last year acts were brought in from all over the world to entertain the crowds during Fringe Street, which was a day of programmed international street theatre.

However this year the fringe will take place between May 1 and 23, so there will be no Fringe City events on the final weekend in May.

Instead there will be a fringe opening night on April 30 from 7pm to 10pm.

The programmed event will take place outside the Unitarian Church in New Road, Brighton and will include a mix of music, physical theatre, animation, dance and physical comedy.

Fringe acts will also walk the streets promoting their events and provide wandering entertainment and some venues will open their doors for special preview nights.

Speaking about the Fringe Street decision Kate Morrison, press officer for the fringe, said: “This is part of our whole strategy for Fringe City.

“The idea of Fringe City is to showcase fringe performers. They get to show some of their act and hand out flyers advertising it.

“However Fringe Street was more about international performers who came from outside the city.

“With the way the bank holidays fall this year we decided to do more on the first weekend to try and promote fringe shows and get ticket sales going as soon as possible.

“We hope to increase ticket sales from the beginning, rather than having something on the last weekend when most of the shows have already finished.

“It is about prioritising what’s going to help the shows more.”

As well as the opening night on April 30, Southern Water Fringe City will take place from 1pm to 5pm in New Road and Jubilee Street on May 1, 8, 15 and 22.