Brighton Festival will bring music, dance, comedy, music and much more to the city this month with thousands of children preparing to kick start the event with the Children’s Parade this morning.
This year’s Brighton Festival marks a new era for the event and will be the first festival under the artistic leadership of new chief executive Lucy Davies.
After sixteen years operating a guest director model, Brighton Festival will be curated by the festival programming team led by Ms Davies with producing director Beth Burgess.
The new model has enabled the festival to begin producing original work for the very first time.
The festival, which this year marks its 60th edition, was first envisioned by Ian Hunter and held in 1967. It featured performances by Laurence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, The Who and Pink Floyd.
In the introduction to the 1968 festival programme, Ian Hunter explained the original intentions of the festival.
“The aim of the Brighton Festival is to stimulate townsfolk and visitors into taking a new look at the arts and to give them the opportunity to assess developments in the field of culture where the serious and the apparently flippant ride side by side,” he said.
The Children’s Parade, the largest of its kind in Europe, is celebrating its 40th year and is inspired by 2026 as the National Year of Reading.
Brighton Festival runs until May 25 and promises more than 100 events.
