Brighton festival 2026 - preview

Today was the launch party for this years Brighton Festival at the Brighton Dome – it's the 60th edition of the festival and they have some very exciting things planned which we managed to get a sneak peak of. Spanning from the 1st to the 25th of May, the festival is a heavily eclectic, multi-arts event featuring over 140 artists from theatre, music, dance and literature. All that good stuff.  

It’s the first year for around 16 consecutive years there hasn’t been a guest director, and that’s given the Festival more freedom to spread its artistic wings, the first expression of which is maybe Kohlhaas (1-5 May), the first original work to be produced by the Festival. It’s an adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s novella Michael Kohlhaas, directed by Omar Elerian and performed by Arinze Kene. It looks to be something special.

There’s an emphasis on theatre - not surprising as the Festival’s new-ish Chief Exec Lucy Davies is from that world - and one of  the most extraordinary things looks to be Dark Noon - pictured above (23-24 May), a wild reimagining of the history of America. The last reviews said “exhilarating and outrageously entertaining”.

Focussing on the musical side of things, they’ve got everything you could wish for really; including legendary artists such Laurie Anderson and punk poet and songwriter Patti Smith (12-13 May) and Zambian psych band W.I.T.C.H (9 May) which are ‘festival exclusives’ I’m personally very excited for – they're guaranteed to put on a fantastic show and their musical repertoires speaks for themselves.  

There’s no shortage of music which falls into the ‘Contemporary’ category of course, including shows from the likes of singer and transgender activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland (1 May), as well as Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo (16 May), American Jazz fusion band Kneebody, and a combined performance by AK/DK and Donalogue. And there’s a dance adaptation of Charlie Mingus’s extraordinary album The Black Saint and The Lady Sinner (16-17 May). 

There’s some unique ones that aren’t to be missed - including The Age of Consent paying homage to the political and musical landscape of 1980’s queer Britain. 

A celebration of the cult classic French riot film, La Haine with a live soundtrack by the Asian Dub Foundation (7 May), and another festival exclusive, previous guest director Laurie Anderson for her Republic of Love show, bringing a new meaning to old songs in todays political climate, which sounds like it’ll be interesting. The One World Orchestra is combining musicians from 16 countries with an electrifying mix of ‘English Folk’, ‘Arabic maqams’ and ‘African rhythms’ - supporting the festivals underlying theme of bringing people together. There must be something for everyone there.  

There’s a lunchtime festival slot where you can presumably indulge in wonderful musical experiences while eating your sandwich – with most of them being of the classical kind – think Mozart and Haydn. Acts include, Minerva Baroque, Astatine Trio, Mithras Trio, Delphine Trio, Novo Quartet from Denmark and Sherri Lun from Hong Kong. Don’t get those names confused, they really have searched the globe to find these artists. There’s also the London Symphony Orchestra putting on their own show on the 8th of May, as well as countertenor Iestyn Davies and harpist Oliver Wass covering an astounding range of classic music from a 400 year period. 

Great as it is to see artists you love, the joy of a Festival is often the mad stuff you’ve never thought about. Talking of which… Land art, visual art and social sculpture collide in the World Premiere of Soft Machines (2-24 May), a major new commission by Brighton-based artist Ivan Morison and his long-term collaborator Heather Peak. It sounds extraordinary. “A love letter to Brighton”. made from agricultural materials, monumental embodied forms will appear on Hove Promenade, but huge. 

Although its hard to imagine it now, let’s hope for glorious weather in May for the outdoor performance slots, as well as all the visual arts; there's afrobeat, hip hop, folk music, and no shortage of dancing, which are all free to watch. 

Now that’s only a whistle stop tour of the full programme, there’s so much music at the Brighton Festival that I’d be very surprised if anyone's left feeling unnoticed and their musical tastes unaccounted for. It’s time to flip over to the May page and put a few of these gigs in the calendar I reckon.