Brighton Festival 2022 - all you need to know

There will more than 150 events, exhibitions and installations from May 7-29. 124 events or installations will take place indoors across multiple venues. 36 events will be free.

There will also be ten Festival commissions, two world premieres and three UK premieres.

And to celebrate its return to pre-pandemic scale and capacity this year, the Festival will also broaden its reach across Sussex, welcoming more community and local programming partners than ever before.

Guest co-directors Marwa Al-Sabouni and Tristan Sharps have confirmed the theme of Rebuilding, with a huge range of events, both indoors and outdoors and in unique locations around the city and across Sussex.

The aim, they say, is to help “cement the Festival’s reputation as a crucible of ideas, illuminating and commenting on the world’s complexities.”

This is the first year the Festival has had two guest co-directors, Syrian architect and author Marwa Al-Sabouni and Tristan Sharps, artistic director of Brighton-based theatre makers dreamthinkspeak.

They will be exploring theme of Rebuilding as the inspiration for this year’s programme,

Marwa said it would address “the loss of what brings us together and what makes us hope.”

Tristan promised a way “to reconnect with our surroundings, the world and ourselves.”

Major projects for 2022 include the world premiere of Unchain Me, a unique new site-specific Brighton Festival commission from dreamthinkspeak, directed by Tristan Sharps. Their multi-media performance taking place at venues across the city is inspired by Dostoyevsky’s novel The Possessed, and is made possible by principal supporter, the Pebble Trust. The Trust’s new annual support of Brighton Festival’s major productions and installations will offer audiences innovative and unique ways of seeing and experiencing the city.

Marwa Al-Sabouni has collaborated with Syrian architect Ghassan Jansiz to design an entirely new space for social and artistic exchange on Hove seafront, The Riwaq, inspired by her own Syrian architectural heritage. The Riwaq will play host to programming partners Carousel, Little Green Pig, Best Foot Music and In-house Records, highlighting the creativity in our communities across the region all year round.

Marwa Al-Sabouni said: “The theme of Rebuilding is our response to the many forms of erosion that took place all over the world in the past few years. Not only the physical destruction of homes and communities, but also the loss of what brings us together and what makes us hope. Brighton Festival is offering us all a wonderful chance to look at Rebuilding across the wide spectrum of creativity it’s hosting. We will be honoured to see you all there!”

Tristan Sharps added: “My hope is that the Festival can play a part in challenging and transforming how we see our surroundings and ourselves. The collaboration with Marwa has already changed how I view the city and world I live in. I can’t wait to share this experience with Marwa and with Brighton in May.”

Andrew Comben, chief executive of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival said: “It is a joy to launch this year’s Festival with a return to the scale and ambition for which Brighton Festival is known. Marwa and Tristan have inspired a community of artists and partners to contribute to a programme of extraordinary richness and we really look forward to sharing these experiences with everyone in May. Thanks to the steadfast support from funders Brighton & Hove City Council, Arts Council England and DCMS’s Cultural Recovery Fund along with major sponsors, supporters and our audiences we can emerge from the pandemic to play our full role in Rebuilding the confidence and cohesion of our communities through arts and culture.”

This year’s original Brighton Festival Commissions include internationally celebrated choreographer, and former Brighton Festival Guest Director, Hofesh Shechter, presenting Double Murder, performed by his inimitable dance company to Schechter’s original score; plus choreographer and performer Charlotte Spencer’s new dance piece, Written in the Body, explores how physical contact holds communities together and what happens when it disappears.

UK premieres include Witness, a new installation from award-winning artist Emma Critchley, using underwater dance, spoken word and science to link the human body to disappearing glaciers; and acrobats from Australia’s exhilarating Circa ensemble will bring Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring to the circus stage in Sacre. Emma Rice’s Wise Children will also return to Brighton Festival with their critically acclaimed musical version of Wuthering Heights, as part of a UK tour.

The Festival continues its innovative site-specific events with the UK premiere of Witness Stand. Australian artists Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey have commissioned a community of writers and sound artists with a connection to Brighton to create emotive sound installations at outdoor sites across the region. On a smaller, but no less dramatic scale architect and artist Mohamad Hafez will bring Journeys from an Absent Present to a Lost Past - his extraordinary miniature streetscapes evoking the ongoing Syrian conflict – in a co-production with Brighton’s Fabrica gallery.

Musical highlights include Brighton Festival exclusive performances from The Orchestra of Syrian Musicians, who many will know from their work with