Brand-new Brighton comedy festival already eyeing up expansion next year

The festival will fill the venue’s three historic event spaces with stand-up, improv, clowning, workshops and the world premiere of a 20th anniversary exhibition from cult cartoonists and animators Modern Toss (October 24-27).

Building on the success of Brighton Dome’s year-round comedy programme, a packed festival line-up offers something for comedy fans of all generations. There are performances from Nish Kumar, Maisie Adam and Gen-Z comic Finlay Christie, Ghosts, Stath Lets Flats and Sewing Bee star Kiell Smith-Bynoe and family friendly double act Shelf. Taskmaster contestant and bestselling author Fern Brady, stand-up Paul Foot and TikTok star and celebrity backing singer Christopher Hall are also on the bill.

Rosie Crane, comedy producer at Brighton Dome, said: “We have been planning this for a long time and we really wanted to make something that is a proper festival with all sorts of things not just stand-up. It's mainly stand-up but we wanted to have installations and we wanted to have free stuff during the day so that the whole thing really does have a proper festival vibe to it. We also really wanted to create a festival where there was literally something for everybody of all ages and we also wanted to make it the most accessible festival. We are making every single show captioned, and I don't think anybody's ever done that before, almost certainly not in an in-person comedy festival.

“We started thinking about it when we first shut down the building for redevelopment. We knew we wanted to be able to use all the buildings so that we could make every area accessible as well as the concert hall and the foyer and so on. We are using the Corn Exchange in two different ways. We have got a theatre set up in one half and the other half will be the Modern Toss exhibition.”

The underlying principle is if it's funny, it can be part of the festival but important too is ensuring a swear-free event as well. If you want the swearing, you will find plenty of it at a special festival edition of Brighton’s biggest comedy night, Live at Brighton Dome, an event known for showcasing emerging artists alongside big names. It will be headlined by writer and comedian Sara Pascoe in the Concert Hall and will also include a performance of Modern Toss’s Periodic Table of Swearing by Indie choral collective Jam Tarts. But for the first time, a teen-friendly version of the show, Live at Brighton Dome Bleeped, will take place simultaneously next door in the refurbished Corn Exchange.

“We wanted to make a younger teen audience welcome in the building. That's an age group that are quite hard to bring out. They might not want to go along to something with their parents but they might not be old enough to go to something by themselves so we are providing this, proper grown-up comedy from proper grown-up comedians but without the swearing or any adult content. They are an age group that are huge comedy fans and watch a lot of comedy on their phones and so on but they just don't get the chances.

“But also it's not just for the younger people. One of the most common things that people say to me when they know what I do is ‘Oh, there is too much swearing in comedy.’ There are a number of adults who are put off by swearing so again this is something that is very much for them.”

In the build-up to the festival there have been workshops for 11-16 year olds: “And they will have a showcase at the festival on the Sunday night. The workshops have been really brilliant and there are some really funny kids around. I can't wait to see what they will do on the Sunday night.”

In its first year the festival is four days long: “We always wanted to make it four days for the first year but a lot more shows came in than I was thinking so we have a lot more content than I was expecting. But next year we're already looking to make it longer. I think we might be looking at nine or ten days next year.

“We have such a huge comedy programme at the Dome, and it is pretty much about condensing that into a festival feel, and I am hoping that we will be able to spread out into the city more next year. We will be working with other venues next year. We are already working with Komedia for the kids’ workshops and it has worked really well. We don't want to get distracted by next year already but it's great that we've already had such positive feedback and sales are looking good. We have such a good comedy audience in Brighton. They really know their stuff in Brighton. They understand comedy and they are discerning so it was really quite a challenge to programme something that really is the best that we can programme.”