Festival of Ideas: Radical Remembering with Stuart Hall Fellow Subira Joy. Photo credit: Chenying Cannell.

We have enjoyed a close partnership with Brighton Festival since it began in 1967.

Now we have come to the close of another remarkable year, we reflect on the hope, wonder, magic and fun of Brighton Festival 2024.

For three weeks in May, thousands of people came together, for the city’s annual curated multi-arts festival, now the largest in England.

As official Higher Education Partner, once again, we put education at the heart of the festival, bringing academic expertise to the forefront through curated programming, as well as facilitating community arts, learning and engagement.

Festival of Ideas

We want to say a huge thank you to our fantastic academics and students from the School of Media, Arts and Humanities for bringing us the ‘Festival of Ideas’. This dynamic series of events and activities have helped fashion new ways of thinking about the past, present and future.

Six events were part of the official festival programme; Stuart Hall Fellow, Subira Joy challenged history and gave hope for the future, Prof. Alice Eldrige’s free sound installation shared the wonder of birdsong, Dr Laura Kounine and Zoë Howe explored the magic of witches, and Turner Prize winner and Sussex alumnus, Jeremy Deller talked about the political and social significance of rave culture, in the pursuit of community and fun.

These events were part of Brighton Festival!

Take a look through the photos in our gallery: click the photo below.

In the run up to the festival, students hosted a week of Festival of Ideas events on campus too. Presenting a mix of talks, workshops, round tables and performances for staff and students to take part in for free.

Take a look through the photos in our gallery: click the photo below.

Brighton Festival on Campus

More events than ever before were held right here on campus, including co-presented Brighton Festival events at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.

Our student Digital Media Creators highlighted ACCA as a key venue in a video on Instagram.

Bringing you unique access

We were delighted to provide staff and students with unique access to the festival programme. We hope you enjoyed taking part in our competitions to win free tickets and well done to all our winners. If you were not lucky enough to win this time, we hope you still took time to attend a performance, taking advantage of the student and staff discounted ticket offers.

Free fun for the family

This year’s festival offered even more events that were free or under £10, and family friendly! Our student Digital Media Creators captured their top picks in a video on Instagram.

Our Place

We supported Our Place: a celebration of creativity, working in partnership with the community to produce art projects, performances and events in their neighbourhoods. 

This spring, three Artist in Residence projects culminated in artworks being showcased as part of Brighton Festival. Our student Digital Media Creator had a great day visiting one of the projects, Arcade 67, in Mouslecoomb, watch the video on Instagram.

Capturing the Magic

Take a look at some more unforgettable moments captured in ‘Postcards from Brighton Festival 2024’. And looking ahead to Brighton Festival 2025, save the date 3–25 May 2025, Musician and Composer Anoushka Shankar has just been announced as Guest Director! Find out more.