What is Brighton Fringe

Here at Brighton Fringe, we aim to entertain and educate thousands of people, and bring together a more diverse and authentic community. From our Freedom Season to our Nordic season, our international festival showcases events created by performers from all walks of life, skill levels, abilities and performing experience. At the Fringe we embrace every art form, from spoken word, visual arts, and theatre productions, to comedy and burlesque. And, with each new year, our festival continues to expand and reach new levels of artistic creativity. But Brighton Fringe is much more than an annual arts festival.

In addition to the festival, we provide workshops and professional resources which are available all year round from our Fringe Academy. We also offer guidance, through mentoring schemes and bursaries that aim to educate and support artistic communities.

We have been a registered charity since 2006 that supports venue managers, performers and event producers to encourage artistic expression and promote it to a wider audience. Public donations enable us to continue to make Brighton Fringe bigger and better, as well as the support from our wonderful sponsors.

Our Sponsors

The Pebble Trust is our principle funder and has been supporting Brighton Fringe since 2011. They share our vision to encourage the arts community, and offer our participants awards and touring bursaries. Their touring bursary enables the winner to perform their event to one or more international Fringe festivals, and financially support its production process. Our additional funders range from the Arts Council England, Brighton and Hove City Council, Fonds Podium Kunsten performing arts fund, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Foyle Foundation and The Embassy of Finland London. We thank our partners and sponsors for their ongoing support and for contributing to the success of Brighton Fringe.

Taking Part

We encourage everyone to take part, whether it’s to showcase your event or to spectate the cultural diversity that takes place in the city over the four weeks. To register to perform, participants are required to pay a one off registration fee to be included in the program. All participants have free creative control over their show, and our team at Brighton Fringe are here to provide support and answer any participant inquiries. Brighton Fringe is accessible to everyone and we invite you all to come and join in on the festivities.

Funding

We understand that participants producing an event can experience high costs with expenses from registration fees, venue fees, technical equipment and accommodation costs. We offer many ways in which we can help reduce fees and get some extra discount for the production of your event. Besides applying for a bursary from one of our sponsors, we advise to share and promote your show online, in order to gain some free advertising. In addition, Crowdfunder provides a great service for you to raise money for your event and gain support from like-minded individuals that share your artistic vision. For more tips and tricks take a look at the funding section on our website.

Fringe City

During the weekends of Brighton Fringe, we host a free outdoor event on New Road, in central Brighton, to give performers the opportunity to promote their event to the public by showcasing it on one of the stages. To take advantage of this opportunity, participants are required to register online under the Fringe City Tab on our registering software Eventotron. Be aware slots fill up quickly.

Awards

In 2016, we established the Brighton Fringe annual award show where we celebrate all the outstanding performances and events that showcased at the respective year’s fringe festival. As a reward, each winner receives a free registration for the following years Brighton Fringe. In 2018, we announced two brand new awards, The Voice Arts award, which focuses on creativity and leadership skills as well as The Marlborough Development award, which focuses on LGBTQ+ performers who have taken risks. There are winners from each category in the brochure and they are all released soon after the festival.