Not only are we lucky enough to have the festival going on in May, but we also have the pleasure of two bank holiday weekends to make sure we really do make the most of it. As we head into the last week of the month (boo!), we’re here to help you find the best of the bank holiday action. ARE YOU READY?
Disco dance through the city’s streets
If you’ve been out and about in Brighton during the festival, then you’ll probably have come across Guru Dudu doing what he does best, guiding a group of disco lovers through the city to a silent disco. It’s time to lose your inhibitions, don a pair of headphones and YMCA around the city (*please note, that song is not guaranteed). What we can guarantee, though, is a lot of laughs, as you flash mob it around local landmarks with onlookers wishing they were part of it.
Friday 25th – Monday 28th May and Friday 1st – Sunday 3rd June 2018; various times; from £9
Meet at the Brighton Fringe Box Office, 30 New Road, Brighton BN1 1SD
brightonfringe.org
Get ready to worship at the altar of dance
Start your weekend with a Friday night visit to ‘church’, as this new Afro-futurist collective invite you to join them for a pastoral performance party. With a fancy dress theme of intergalactic techno church realness (wow), they will be transforming the Brighton Dome into a place of rainbow worship. The congregation of artists includes headliner Big Freedia, who you may well know from Beyonce’s ‘Formation‘, along with queer artists of colour Rachael Young, Ria Hartley, Malik Nashad Sharpe, Lasana Shabazz and DJ sets from Sista Selecta also on the bill. Prepare for a modern-day ritual that will leave you getting heavenly on the dancefloor as the artists perform throughout the evening. Get warmed up for a not-so-quiet church service with this Brownton Abbey playlist from I am Fya.
Friday 25th May, 8pm; £15
Brighton Dome, Church St, Brighton BN1 1UE
brightonfestival.org
Learn how to throw a pot
Time to get ‘Unchained Melody’ turned up and get putty in your hands, as The Painting Pottery Café on North Road host a pot-throwing party. You’ll be able to experience the potter’s wheel as they guide you through the making of your very own pot. There are various sessions on each day and eight places on each, so it’s a fun activity to do with friends if you can round up a group. The friendly team will glaze and fire your creation for you, ready to collect three weeks later.
Saturday 26th – Sunday 27th May and Saturday 2nd – Sunday 3rd June, various times; £12.50
The Painting Pottery Café, 31 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YB
brightonfringe.org
Have your art exhibited on tour
If you’ve ever wanted to see your work on the wall of a gallery, then here’s your chance, as the Brighton Festival curator himself, David Shrigley, invites you to draw his sculpture of Life Model II. Standing at nine foot tall, she’s not your ‘average’ human, but that was exactly as David intended; he deliberately made the proportions unrealistic to show that even the best artists’ work can look a bit wrong. Thank you, David! Rock up and get drawing this weekend as it’s the last opportunity you’ll get before it heads off on tour. All the materials are provided, too. What’s more, a selection of the exhibited artwork will be joining the artwork on her travels, so your work could end up being exhibited in another country. Oooh-er.
Friday 25th May 12 – 5pm, Saturday 26th – Sunday 27th May 12 – 7pm, Monday 28th May 2 – 5pm; free
Fabrica Gallery, 40 Duke St, Brighton BN1 1AG
brightonfestival.org
Love is a funny thing
What better way to finish off a glorious bank holiday weekend of festival fun, than with a couple of clowns for entertainment? Heather and Harry takes a fun-filled look at what it means to be human and in love. Heather is cast from heaven by her gangster, rapper husband Zeus. Doesn’t sound too far-fetched, does it? This all-singing, all-dancing, Lecoq-trained duo of clowns (aka the eponymous Heather and Harry) will have you in stitches as they combine mime, cabaret, theatre and a bit of rapping, too. You’ll leave with a warm heart as cockney philosopher Harry saves Heather from the chaos of London’s mad ways.
Sunday 27th – Monday 28th May, 7.45pm; from £6
Brighton Spiegeltent: Bosco, Old Steine Gardens, Brighton, BN1 1GY
brightonfringe.org
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Photo credits: Stumble Trip Theatre (Heather & Harry featured), Elijah Habib (Brownton Abbey)
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