How You Found Your Fringe In 2024

For 2024, we asked all Fringe-goers to “Find Your Fringe” and explore the many and diverse events that Brighton Fringe had to offer. Whether that was finding your funny, your weird, your escape, your story, your groove, your thrill, or your talent, there was something for everyone at Brighton Fringe this year. Throughout May and the beginning of June, Fringe-goers attended events all over the city. 

This year there were over 750 events, which constituted over 3,000 separate performances, by artists from Brighton & Hove, elsewhere in the UK, and international artists too, from Ireland, Iceland, Nigeria, Nigeria, Italy, Malta, Australia and much more. These events took place in 130 venues across the city, with some taking part in Brighton Fringe for the first time like Purple Playhouse Theatre, Daltons Brighton, and Fool’s Paradise.  

Fool’s Paradise was the new outdoor venue that we welcomed to Brighton Fringe this year. With 2 spaces for shows, The Vault and The Bunker, they hosted jaw-dropping circus shows and incredible theatre pieces. Fool’s Paradise joins our other wonderful outdoor venue spaces like The Rotunda and The Lady Boys of Bangkok.  

The average ticket price for paid ticketed events in 2024 has jumped by £1.05 to £10.44. Along with everyone, artists are feeling the pinch from the cost-of-living crisis. Even though the price has increased, on average, tickets remain relatively affordable for Fringe-goers.  

We are always looking to support artists and venues that want to participate in Brighton Fringe, and have created resources and opportunities to do this year-round. Our Fringe Academy has been expanded, with over 18 different webinars run on topics from how to produce a show, advice on ticketing strategy, how to film a trailer, and more, these are now all available on our website for anyone and everyone to learn from. As well as Fringe Academies run by the Brighton Fringe team, we also partnered with various arts industry and press organisations to lend their support to Fringe Academies too, these arts organisations included Chichester Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, Equity, and Arts Council England. The press organisations that lent their support were British Comedy Guide, Broadway Baby, FringeReview, and Brighton Seagull.  

These were attended by over 410 artists and venue managers, and our networking sessions during Fringe saw over 160 artists meet.  

We have also expanded our bursary offerings, with the aim of removing some financial barriers for artists from disadvantaged groups. This allowed over 15 artists to bring their work to Brighton Fringe and develop their craft further.  

On top of this, we have started running events outside of May, to provide artists with paid performance opportunities. We ran showcases to demonstrate some of the amazing acts that would be participating in Brighton Fringe with a Winter Showcase that took place at The Lantern Theatre, another in February at Daltons Brighton. We also ran a Made in Sussex Showcase to show some of the great work from artists locally, which took place at the CityCoast Centre.  

As always, we wanted to recognise the best of Brighton Fringe through our annual awards. This year we worked with new partners to offer new benefits as part of the award and further support for our artists. How to Catch a Bookwitch (Coppice Theatre) won the Farnham Maltings Emerging Artist/Company Award which came with a £2,000 cash prize and an opportunity to perform at either the new Farnham Fringe Festival or within the Farnham Maltings Programme. Our Audience Choice Award for Best Brighton Fringe Event went to Aquarium History Tours, a stalwart of Brighton Fringe, and with it mentoring from Chichester Festival Theatre.  

As well as having a public vote for the best event, we had a public vote for the best venue which went to Lionhouse. The Spirit of the Fringe award was also opened to public nominations for the first time this year, to allow artists and venue managers to say who they believe should be recognised for their work in supporting the arts in Brighton. This year, the winner was Nik Coppin, a familiar face in the Brighton comedy scene who works hard to promote often unheard female voices in comedy and his charitable work, donating the proceeds of one of his shows to a local foodbank.  

Brighton Fringe would be nothing without its amazing artist and venues, who we would like to thank once again for making 2024 a success. Whether you’re an established act, or you’ve taken your first tentative steps into the world of Fringe, we hope to welcome you all back to Brighton Fringe when we return in 2025!