Queer joy, trans icons and 50 tears of lesbian counterculture: Brighton Festival 60th edition is absolutely ours

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.

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.

Full festival programme and listings here:

The Headline LGBTQ+ Acts

The Age of Consent on 2 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall

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.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland on 1 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall.

The 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.

Joelle Taylor: Maryville on 8–9 May at Brighton Dome Studio Theatre

Following 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.

Soft Machines Ivan Morison & Heather Peak world premiere on 2–24 May at Hove Promenade.

Monumental 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.

carnation: the revolution is coming and I have nothing to wear NoFit State world premiere from 2–25 May at Black Rock

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.

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.

Laurie Anderson: The Republic of Love Brighton Festival exclusive on 6 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall

A 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.

Patti Smith on 12 & 13 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall

Two 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.

Sampa the Great & W.I.T.C.H. festival exclusive on 9 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall

A 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.

Angélique Kidjo on 16 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall

Five-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.

Dark Noon fix+foxy from 21–24 May at Corn Exchange

A 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.

Fragments of Us by Talawa Theatre Company - Weekend Without Walls, free

An 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.

A Timeline of Infinite Skies with Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic from 2 May–28 June at Phoenix Art Space

An 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.

Asian Dub Foundation: La Haine live on 7 May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall

The 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.

How to Defeat the Far Right on 11 May at Corn Exchange

A 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.

The Torch with Nigel ‘Kobby’ Taylor - Weekend Without Walls, free

Afrobeat, hip-hop, rap and storytelling collide in outdoor gig-theatre celebrating Black cultural expression and communal joy. Free and open to all.

Garbh (womb) - Weekend Without Walls, free

An outdoor dance work reimagining ancient Gujarati Folk Dance Garba in the round, a collision of tradition, diaspora identity and contemporary movement. Free, outdoors, unmissable.

STATUS FLO on 18 May at Corn Exchange

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.

Our Place and Community Programming

Now 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.

Puppeteer 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.

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.

At 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.

Queer 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.