{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreiaoiwc3t6wsy6xz4pqj43czeffwdhsfckompujt2vmx5gtzl5sfve",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:dpedpnneemu43m5uma64haxi/app.bsky.feed.post/3miyadhe77tv2"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreihtskh6wlfuemuvowoz4dqyqr53ttlcvzsi6jcixdcjdvzwu5lbwe"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/png",
    "size": 1176151
  },
  "description": "We’ve combed through the full programme so you don’t have to, here’s every LGBTQ+ gem, every diversity-centred show, and every community-rooted event lighting up the ",
  "path": "/queer-joy-trans-icons-and-50-tears-of-lesbian-counterculture-brighton-festival-60th-edition-is-absolutely-ours/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-08T11:55:11.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.scenemag.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Full festival programme and listings here:"
  ],
  "textContent": "We’ve combed through the full programme so you don’t have to, here’s every LGBTQ+ gem, every diversity-centred show, and every community-rooted event lighting up the south coast from**1 - 25 May** 2026.\n\n**Brighton Festival** returns for its 60th edition from**1 - 25 May** 2026, curated by new Chief Executive **Lucy Davies**. With 105 events across 24 days, over 25 free events and most tickets priced at £15 or under, this landmark year puts queer and trans work, diversity and community at the centre of its programme.\n\nFull festival programme and listings here: \n\n## The Headline LGBTQ+ Acts\n\n###  _The Age of Consent_ on __**2 May** at **Brighton Dome Concert Hall**\n\n**Bronski Beat** ’s seismic 1984 debut album gets a full reimagining by a new generation of queer and trans artists including **Planningtorock,** **Tom Rasmussen** and **Bishi.** Part love letter, part revolution. _The_ night of the Festival.\n\n### **Beverly Glenn-Copeland** on**1 May** at **Brighton Dome Concert Hall**.\n\nThe legendary trans singer, composer and activist opens the Festival on its first night, performing new material alongside the 60-piece all-genders community choir **F*Choir.** His singular blend of folk, jazz, classical and electronics is essential listening.\n\n### **Joelle Taylor:** **_Maryville_** on 8–9 May at Brighton Dome Studio Theatre\n\nFollowing her **T.S. Eliot Prize** win, Taylor performs a staged reading of her new poetry collection, a raw excavation of 50 years of lesbian counterculture. Directed by **Neil Bartlett** with visuals by filmmaker **Sweatmother.** Q&A and book signing follow.\n\n### _Soft Machines_ **Ivan Morison** & **Heather Peak** world premiere on 2–24 May at Hove Promenade.\n\nMonumental sculptures built from agricultural materials appear along Hove Seafront in a commission Morison describes as rooted in queer, relational practice. Built in collaboration with **Making It Out,** a Brighton charity supporting people after prison.\n\n### _carnation: the revolution_ is coming _and I have nothing to wear_**NoFit State** world premiere from 2–25 May at Black Rock\n\n**NoFit State** ’s blazing new circus spectacular blends aerial artistry, live music and bold cinematic imagery into a charged vision of collective resistance. A world premiere running the length of the Festival.\n\n**Harry Clayton-Wright** brings **_Mr Blackpool_** , an end of the pier and world show, to **ACRA (Sussex Uni)**. Four Blackpool performers weave cabaret, magic, dance and drag into a dazzling act of cultural archaeology and political satire. Set against a backdrop of climate collapse and late-stage capitalism, it's lurid, garish, technicolour spectacle: part seaside nostalgia, part sideshow, entirely glittery noir camp.\n\n### **Laurie Anderson:** _The Republic of Love_ Brighton Festival exclusive on 6 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall\n\nA multi-sensory solo performance from the pioneering multimedia artist and former Festival Guest Director, weaving songs including _Big Science_ and _Language Is A Virus_ into a meditation on love in politically turbulent times.\n\n### **Patti Smith** on 12 & 13 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall\n\nTwo nights with the godmother of punk. The first sees the **Patti Smith Quartet** in a charged collision of music, art and activism. The second is a Brighton exclusive of spoken word, poetry and intimate live music.\n\n### **Sampa the Great** & **W.I.T.C.H.** festival exclusive on 9 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall\n\nA one-off collaboration between groundbreaking Zambian-Australian artist **Sampa the Great** and **Zamrock** pioneers **W.I.T.C.H**., celebrating creative freedom, resilience and music born from independence. Psychedelic rock, hip-hop and soul.\n\n### **Angélique Kidjo on** 16 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall\n\nFive-time Grammy winner performs as part of her _Hope Tour_. A towering voice for women, for Africa and for global solidarity, her presence here is political as much as it is musical.\n\n__Dark Noon__****fix+foxy****\n\n###  _Dark Noon_**fix+foxy from** 21–24 May at Corn Exchange\n\nA South African cast delivers a brutal, immersive satire dismantling the mythology of the American frontier, confronting race, displacement and colonial power. Arrives fresh from five-star runs.\n\n### _Fragments of Us_ by __**Talawa Theatre Company -** Weekend Without Walls, free\n\nAn outdoor work centring identity, resilience and vulnerability through a cast of Black men and boys. Free and accessible, part of Brighton Festival’s commitment to reaching audiences beyond theatre buildings.\n\n### _A Timeline of Infinite Skies_ with __**Antonio Jose Guzman** & **Iva Jankovic from** 2 May–28 June at Phoenix Art Space\n\nAn immersive installation reflecting on Brighton and Hove’s suppressed histories linked to the forced migration of enslaved people. Extended beyond the Festival’s own dates to give audiences time to sit with it.\n\n### **Asian Dub Foundation:**_La Haine_ live on 7 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall\n\nThe British Asian collective perform a live soundtrack to the seminal 1995 film about police brutality and racism. A film that has never stopped being relevant, with a band that has never stopped being angry.\n\n### _How to Defeat the Far Right_ on 11 May at Corn Exchange\n\nA live debate led by HOPE not hate founder **Nick Lowles** responding to the rise of the far right. As our community faces renewed pressure internationally, this feels less like a cultural event and more like a briefing.\n\n### _The Torch_ with **Nigel ‘Kobby’ Taylor -** Weekend Without Walls, free\n\nAfrobeat, hip-hop, rap and storytelling collide in outdoor gig-theatre celebrating Black cultural expression and communal joy. Free and open to all.\n\n### _Garbh_(womb) - Weekend Without Walls, free\n\nAn outdoor dance work reimagining ancient Gujarati Folk Dance Garba in the round, a collision of tradition, diaspora identity and contemporary movement. Free, outdoors, unmissable.\n\n### _STATUS FLO_ on 18 May at Corn Exchange\n\n**Joelle Taylor** joins award-winning writer**Yomi Ṣode** and local artists for this spoken word showcase curated and hosted by **AFLO. the poet**. A celebration of voice, community and the power of language.\n\n### _**Our Place** _and Community Programming\n\nNow in its 10th edition, _Our Place_ is Brighton Festival’s grassroots strand originally inspired by former Guest Director **Kae Tempest.** This year, artist **LEO** collaborates with East Brighton residents to create land art and sculptures across Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb and Bevendean.\n\nPuppeteer **Darren East** leads workshops building towards a live performance with giant puppetry, masks and music. A free Family Fun Day at Brighton Dome on **4 May** marks a decade of community-rooted making.\n\n**_The 40th Children’s Parade_** on**1 May** sees thousands of schoolchildren take to the streets with giant costumes and artworks inspired by the **2026 National Year of Reading**. The largest parade of its kind in Europe, it is proof that the Festival belongs to everyone who calls Brighton home.\n\nAt the Brighton Dome Concert Hall, international star pianist **Denis Kozhukhin** performs Beethoven’s mesmerising **_Piano Concerto No. 3_** with the **London Symphony Orchestra** under Chief Conductor **Sir Antonio Pappano** (**8 May**). And on **17 May** , the **Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra** performs Shostakovich’s _**Symphony No. 10**_ , set to William Kentridge’s animated film _Oh To Believe in Another World_ , a dream-like “Soviet museum” created using collage, puppets and masked actors. A bold new staging of Bach’s **_St John Passion_**(**4 May**), performed by the outstanding **Britten Sinfonia,** young soloists from **Les Arts Florissants** and the magnificent **Brighton Festival Chorus and Youth Choir.**\n\nQueer and trans artists appear as anchors in this years festival, from opening night with**Glenn-Copeland** , the seafront with Morison’s explicitly queer land art, and an anticipated literary event with Taylor’s **_Maryville_**. Artists are given space to be complex and political and community work is centred. Often queerness is a niche strand, 2026 treats it as the beating pulse of the city itself.",
  "title": "Queer joy, trans icons and 50 tears of lesbian counterculture: Brighton Festival 60th edition is absolutely ours",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-08T11:55:12.135Z"
}