The organisers behind the Brighton Festival, Fringe and Artist Open Houses have made it even more easier to access events program information, venue iinformation and experience sharing this year with iPhone and Android apps plus Flickr groups and Twitter #tags. Here’s the lowdown on social media and news guides to help you get the best our of festival season: Brighton Festival App: They are calling this an app but its technically a mobile site for iPhone and Android which offers really good download speed of essential information: events and venue details. As it is only a mobile site, there are no other tools e.g. saving favourites or planned events.

iFringe: A multi-functional app for iPhone and Android which allows you to filter your event preferences to the type in which you are interested. You can bookmark events you’re interested plus get the latest news and reviews of Fringe shows directly to your phone. My favourite feature is where the app uses your current GPS location to tell you what’s on nearby, great for any last minute festival whims.

Facebook: If there’s an official Brighton Festival 2011 Facebook page I couldn’t find it in the search which surprised me greatly. Surely this would be the best place to publicise the programme to a wider audience. The Fringe page has an open wall, so anyone can post details of their event or experience making it pretty interactive, although it could do with a bit more discussion....so your chance to get involved! The Artists Open Houses wall on facebook is not open but their feed is lively and current so a great source for latest news of the trails.

Twitter: Follow @brightfest, @brightfestradio, @brightonfringe and @artisthouses for official tweets. Brighton Festival and Fringe seem to be missing a trick by not publicising hash tags clearly on their websites and as a result people are using #brightonfestival #brightfest and #BF2011 , which seems to be the tag the official organisers are using but could also be the Brass Festival 2011, this convolutes the social media experience in my view. Brighton Fringe is simply #brightonfringe and Artists Open Houses tag is #AOH.

YouTube: Subscribe to user ‘BrightonFestival2011’, ‘brightfringefest’ and ‘citroenactive’ to see official videos from the organisers or sponsors. There’s also lots of production companies posting previews of their shows, so use key words to explore something you’re interested in, it may be just the sway you need to invest in a ticket.

The Argus: The Argus has created a page with news, daily offers, previews and reviews. They have put up the usual photo galleries for various events i.e. The Children’s Parade where you can send your photos in to be added but no interaction with any other social media from what I can see. There is an exclusive photo competition in partnership with Hewlett Packard where budding photographers can win a juicy prize, check the page for terms.

Flickr: There doesn’t appear to be an official group set up for the Festival or Fringe and several unofficial groups to choose from. Join ‘AOH: Artists’ Open Houses’ group to add your pictures from this years trails.

All the above tools are completely free of charge, you just pay your usual standard rate from your mobile or home internet provider.

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