insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 15 - May 2016 | Page 29

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT

it’s festival season!
It’s festival season once again, and from now until well into the
autumn you can take your pick of the exciting, entertaining,
spectacularly different festivals across Kent and Sussex.
Looping The Loop // Kent // 23 Apr – 5 May

Brighton Fringe
// Sussex // 6 May – 5 June

This spring, don't
miss the
wonderful
Looping the Loop
Festival which
takes place
across the three
seaside towns of
the Isle of Thanet.
The festival brings
world-class
productions and
locally produced
shows to delight
both theatre lovers and new audiences, providing some surprising and eye
opening experiences for all ages! Starting on the 400th anniversary of
Shakespeare's death, Looping the Loop sets out to demonstrate that
theatre is far from dead in 2016!

Brighton Fringe takes place every May and is
a great place to spend the May bank holiday
and the summer half-term break. This vast
celebration of all things creative has grown out
of, and is inspired by, home-grown talent. More
than 50% of participants are based in Brighton
& Hove, and the festival is committed to helping
the arts flourish by being completely openaccess, which means anyone can put on a
Brighton Fringe event. This enables both new
and established performers to try out new work
and take risks. They also help artists develop professionally through a range
of workshops, mentoring and bursary programmes. A wide array of critically
acclaimed shows and performers also appear at Brighton Fringe each year.
www.brightonfringe.org

www.loopingtheloopfestival.org.uk

Brighton Festival // Sussex // 7-29 May
Brighton Festival is an annual celebration of music,
theatre, dance, circus, art, film, literature, debate,
outdoor and family events taking place in venues
both familiar and unusual across Brighton and
Hove for three weeks every May. In 2016, Brighton
Festival celebrates 50 years of commissioning and
producing innovative arts and culture with guest
director Laurie Anderson at the helm.
Established in 1967, Brighton Festival has
become one of the city's most enduring symbols
of inventiveness and celebration over the past half century. Brighton Festival
is known for its ambitious and daring programme that aims to make the
most of the city’s distinctive cultural atmosphere, drawing some of the most
innovative artists and companies (and adventurous audiences) from the UK
and around the world.

Nucleus ArtsFest
// Kent // various
dates May-Oct
Nucleus ArtsFest was
designed as a celebration of
the arts and creativity in
Chatham. ArtsFests can take
many forms, and have done
over the years. They are often
free one-day festivals, but
they also form an umbrella
for many other events such
as workshops, the Medway
Fun Palace, Open Studios
and more. The festivals
include live music, theatre,
dance, contemporary street
theatre, poetry, film and the
visual arts, showcasing
professional and amateur artists with particular focus on artists who are
connected with the Medway Towns.

www.brightonfestival.org

The Great Escape // Sussex //
19-21 May

The Sevenoaks Food and Drink Festival was launched in 2015 and was an
immediate hit with the visiting public. Great setting, fantastic selection of
foods, mouth-watering street dining and a craft beer festival to wash it all
down – so they're doing it all again this year!

The Great Escape is the festival for new mu