‘Find your Fringe’ theme heralds return of arts festival

Spring solstice has been and gone, the clocks have gone forward, and the evenings are getting lighter. Marquees, caravans, and other weird and wonderful structures have popped up here and there around the city. It can only mean one thing… Brighton Fringe is back!

The Sussex Business Times team headed to the Brighton Fringe Launch event at Ironworks Studios, hosted by Silicon Brighton, to hear all about their newly established partnership from Silicon Brighton’s Co-Founder, Grace Prior.

Fringe is an open access arts festival that happens in May every year, bringing over 700 acts to hundreds of different venues across Brighton, Hove and Sussex, generating millions of pounds for the local economy. It puts the city and the region on the map and brings investment with it, but it also gives people the chance to experiment with and showcase their creative specialisms. And it provides a platform for grass-roots artists to develop their work.

This year’s theme ‘Find your Fringe’ truly taps into the ethos that anyone at any level, regardless of ability and background is not only welcome but embraced onto the programme.

Grace said: “We saw lots of similarities between the mission and the values of Brighton Fringe and Silicon Brighton, and that’s why we launched a partnership at the end of last year.

“We are also a not for profit and our focus is on supporting the local tech and digital meetup scene. All the meetups are free to attend, they’re hybrid and available to people at all levels. We want the events, and the industry to be accessible to anyone, removing any barriers to entry – whether you’re just starting out, thinking about your next career move or looking for peer support at a more senior level.

“It’s not home and it’s not the office. It’s a place you can go to meet like-minded individuals to connect and learn new things. This in turn spotlights the city as a place to thrive in life as well as work.”

Grace explained that, in terms of Brighton’s USP, the city’s size could be its advantage. Brighton & Hove is small enough that tech, digital and creative verticals don’t need to operate in separate silos, and that there is an opportunity to seek out the synergies that bring these worlds together.

The partnership between Silicon Brighton and Brighton Fringe is about exploring that intersection where tech and digital meet creative – and Grace is hoping to leverage this partnership to position Brighton not only as a tech hub but as a leading cultural hub in the UK.

“Throughout May specifically, we’ve curated a programme of meetups that will form part of the Fringe programme,” Grace added. “So, we have everything from talks from techies with a creative background or using tech in a creative way, to fully fledged tech talks with a Fringe act alongside. This is the first time we’ve done anything like this, so we’re pretty intrigued to see how it pans out!”

We also heard from Artist & Venue Services Manager, Rhiannon Lingwood, at Brighton Fringe who elaborated: “We’re looking to build on this collaboration throughout the year and would love to speak to anyone who’s willing to lend their time to support creatives in the city who may be interested in developing their technical skills to improve their show development, their performance or even their marketing strategy.”

Grace thanked the Silicon Brighton meet-up organisers, speakers and volunteers, explaining that all of the amazing, impactful stuff that happens as a result of getting people together in person at the Silicon Brighton supported meetups is down to them. She also said: “If you’re interested in contributing to the wider Silicon Brighton mission, we’re always looking for people to dedicate their time, skills and resources – whether it’s to become a speaker or an organiser, or maybe you have a space that could accommodate one of our meetup groups.”

In the spirit of truly embracing the partnership between Silicon Brighton and Brighton Fringe, Grace handed over to the evening’s keynote, Technology Executive Winn Faria, to deliver an A-Z whistlestop tour on emerging technologies, innovation and investment & funding. We then listened to the amazing Paul Diello for a sneak peak at his Fringe performance; The Great 80s & 90s One Hit Wonder Songbook.

Missed it? Don’t worry, the talk will be available on the Silicon Brighton YouTube channel very shortly.

To check out the full schedule of free tech and digital meetups across the city, visit siliconbrighton.com/events and to see everything that’s happening across Brighton Fringe this year go to brightonfringe.org/events.