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# Brighton Festival 2025 returns with guest director Anoushka Shankar
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/brighton-festival-2025-returns-with-guest-director-anoushka-shankar/
- Published: 2025-03-03T15:00:28.000Z
- Updated: 2025-03-03T17:13:33.000Z
- Description: People of a certain age will remember renowned musician and composer Ravi Shankar teaching the ancient musical instrument the sitar to The Beatles’ George Harrison – a sound that changed the group’s musical style.
- Author: Brian Butler
- Tags: Brighton Festival, Brighton

**Lead Pic:* Anoushka Shankar, photo by Laura Lewis*

People of a certain age will remember renowned musician and composer **Ravi Shankar** teaching the ancient musical instrument the sitar to The Beatles’ George Harrison – a sound that changed the group’s musical style.

Now Ravi’s daughter **Anoushka** **Shankar** has changed the mood and style of **Brighton Festival 2025** and given it a strong and distinctive South Asian sound and feel.

As this year’s guest director, she has helped to create a festival on the theme of **New Dawn** – suggesting that after the darkness of recent times- including last year’s riots – that there is a new feeling of hope, recovery and optimism which the creative arts can express and promote.

Shankar’s picks include Pakistani-American vocalist **Arooj Aftab**, and singer/songwriter **Nadine Shah**. *Wembley* is a world premiere by author/screenwriter **Nikesh Shukla**, with **Nikesh** and **Himesh Patel**, dealing with the aftermath of the 2024 riots.

**Anoushka** will also be performing at the festival, including her new album: *Chapter Three – We Return To Light*.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/95ef5ecc2590ee0d8e0c741702f94ff3-e1741006559964.webp)

Revealing St James’s Street with Billie Gold, Alex Fincher and Alfie Ordinary

There are three queer offerings in the programme. There’s a walking tour of **St James’s Street** and its queer history led by drag stars **Alfie Ordinary**, **Alex Fincher** and **Billie Gold**, and a chance to contribute to local queer history archives, through **The Coast Is Queer** and **Queer Heritage South**.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/220ba6a31c75c4667918807a8f725331.webp)

*Thank You For Calling The Lesbian Line* – **Elizabeth Lovatt**

*Thank You For Calling The Lesbian Line* is a talk by **Elizabeth Lovatt**, and is a timely exploration of how lesbian identity continues to redefine itself, and where it might lead us in the future. Elizabeth talks to writer Lesley Wood about her new book tracing her own journey from coming out to finding her chosen family, while reimagining the women who called and volunteered for the Lesbian Line in the 1990’s.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/theatre-of-dreams_hofesh-shechter-company_bf25_photo-credit-ulrich-geische.png)

Theatre of Dreams – Hofesh Shechter Company. Photo Credit Ulrich Geischë

*Theatre of Dreams* is the latest dance work by the stunningly talented **Hofesh Shechter Company**, who has delighted Brighton audiences previously. It deals with fantasy and the world of the subconscious.

*Ayna* is a world premiere from British-Turkish choreographer **Ceyda Tanc**, set in a night club with a live DJ, and an all-female cast weaving Turkish folk traditions and athletic contemporary dance,

*Circus* is represented by Australia’s **Circa** with their show *Humans 2.0*. It asks what does it mean to be human, using acrobatics, contemporary dance and an electronic score.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/hamlet_teatro-la-plaza_bf25.jpg)

**Teatro La Plaza** – *Hamlet*

Peruvian **Teatro La Plaza** give us a reinvented *Hamlet*, performed by a community of actors all with Downs Syndrome. Legendary theatre director **Emma Rice** and her company **Wise Children** take an Alfred Hitchcock classic in a funny re-working of *North By North West*.

There are numerous lunchtime concerts, a percussion parade, the **Royal Philharmonic** performing *Sibelius* and a song recital by **Sarah Connolly**. The **London Symphony Orchestra**, with **Leila Josefowicz**, present **Stravinsky**’s violin concerto, and **Harry Christophers** brings his *Sixteen* to sing old and new choral works by **Hildegard of Bingen**, **John Taverner** and **Arvo Part**.

You can walk by the seashore and draw your own version of *New Dawn* to be displayed publicly – and so much more to dive into.

**Full details [HERE](http://brightonfestival.org/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)**