Brighton Festival’s landmark 60th edition concludes this weekend with a packed line up offering audiences one last opportunity to experience this year’s expansive programme, which has featured more than 100 events from over 140 artists. From acclaimed theatre, dance and circus to music, free outdoor performances, visual arts and open days, plus a youth curated weekend that showcases emerging young artists from across Sussex, there is something for all ages to enjoy.
Brighton Dome Corn Exchange is transformed into the Wild West for Dark Noon, an absurdist, satirical and immersive take on the US frontier era from award-winning theatre company Fix+Foxy and produced by Glynis Henderson Productions. Across the street at Theatre Royal, the revival of Emma Rice Company’s acclaimed Malory Towers adaptation bursts with high jinks, high drama and live music. In dance, the celebrated Akram Khan Company present their final touring production, Thikra: Night of Remembering at Brighton Dome Concert Hall. An all-female cast of contemporary and Bharatanatyam dancers imagine an annual gathering of a tribe of women to honour those who came before them, through ceremony and shared remembrance.
It is the last chance to see leading circus company NoFit State’s carnation, a large-scale, immersive spectacle that blends circus, live music and cinematic imagery to create a vision of collective defiance, diving headfirst into rebellion, resistance and hope with humour, heart and real risk. This weekend, Black Rock, alongside Market Square in the city centre, also hosts Without Walls, a series of free, outdoor performances curated to celebrate the unique essence of Brighton. The programme includes street theatre, puppets, physical comedy and dance suitable for the whole family throughout Saturday and Sunday.
Soft Machines, a public artwork made up of a series of gigantic, embodied forms on Hove Promenade, created by Brighton-based artist Ivan Morison and long-term collaborator Heather Peak, continues across the closing weekend. Made from agricultural materials in collaboration with Millimetre and Making it Out, a Brighton based charity working with people after prison to build skills and stable futures, the installation is a love letter to Brighton and the bodies that make a city.
At Phoenix Art Space, immersive installation and soundscape A Timeline of Infinite Skies, by the artist duo Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic, features their trademark indigo-dyed patterned textiles. The work reflects on Brighton & Hove’s hidden histories shaped by slavery, exploring tensions between profit and protest, wealth and abolition. Over in Newhaven at BN9 Studio, Shhh… is a sculptural dialogue exploring silence as a charged force by artists Isobel Smith and Abigail Norris. Their paired works speak for themselves, resonating with tension, pressure and autonomy without merging practices.
Back at Brighton Dome, cross-disciplinary theatre artists KlangHaus’s two shows Darkroom, an immersive, multi-sensory installation held in complete darkness, and Last Haus on Earth, a performance that is part gig, part installation, part dream, continue until Sunday. On Friday, comedian and writer Leila Navabi performs Relay, a bold, joyful one-person show that blends personal storytelling, original songs and stand-up comedy, to explore fertility, ambition, queer family-making and bodily autonomy.
Mehfils: A Studio Theatre Takeover on Saturday evening sees Brighton’s The Mehfil Space and South Asian classical music platform zerOclassikal invite audiences to experience the ‘rasa’, or emotion, of South Asian classical arts in a relaxed setting, seated on rugs and cushions around the stage for two intimate performances.
The takeover of Brighton Dome Studio Theatre continues across the weekend as young artists, musicians and creatives gather to present their work across a series of youth-curated events. On Sunday, Sussex Music Hub lead organisation Create Music presents Sounds Like Us, showcasing up-and-coming artistic and musical talent from across the region. A free visual art exhibition will feature photography, painting and multimedia work from young artists, covering themes including identity, community, memory and nature. In the evening, performers aged 14-19 will take to the Studio Theatre stage for an evening of music, poetry and performance.
Bank Holiday Monday sees Brighton-based arts charity Lighthouse’s Future Creative Leaders, a collective of young creatives, thinkers and community builders, present their event programme. In the afternoon, researcher and cultural strategist Dr Fez Sibanda leads a discussion on inheritance and legacy, imagination and hope, joined by a panel of activists, community leaders and writers, together with young voices from Brighton’s grassroots creative communities. In the evening, genre-defying jazz- and Afrobeat-influenced collective Steam Down headline an evening of improvised, intergenerational music-making alongside local artists and DJs, with a gallery of young people’s artwork on display.
Also on Bank Holiday Monday is a Record-Breaking Table Tennis open day from Brighton Table Tennis Club. Free to attend at Brighton Dome Corn Exchange from 2-7pm, participants of all ages are invited to attempt world-record-breaking table tennis challenges to try and make Guinness World Record history in this free, high-energy celebration of sport, community and fun. In Brighton Dome Concert Hall, captivating New Zealand musician Aldous Harding closes Brighton Festival 2026 with the first date of her UK, European and North American tour. Drawing on influences such as Kate Bush, Scott Walker and Nico, Harding presents songs from her brand new fifth album, Train on the Island.
The Brighton Festival spirit continues into the half term week as Breakin’ Convention, the high-energy hip hop and breakdance show curated by dance legend Jonzi D, returns to Brighton Dome on for two performances on 27 May. The stellar line-up for Brighton includes Femme Fatale, ILL-Abilities, Thread Temple and the Olivier Award-winning TRAPLORD from Ivan Michael Blackstock, alongside local dance crews.
Brighton Festival 2026 runs until 25 May. The 60th edition of England’s largest curated multi-arts Festival, it is the first under the artistic leadership of new Chief Executive Lucy Davies. For more information and to book tickets, visit brightonfestival.org.
The Brighton Bucket List 