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Welcome to Brighton 2009

ThreeWeeks Ramblings: Caro Moses

Yikes, it’s May already. Yes, I always say that. At this exact moment every single year. But it does come up fast, doesn’t it?

And here’s another reason to say things like “yikes”. This is ThreeWeeks’ fourth year covering the Brighton Festival. This August, incidentally, will be ThreeWeeks’ fourteenth year covering the Edinburgh Festival – a fact that’s making us all feel rather old, so the less said about that right now, the better. Besides which, this is ThreeWeeks in Brighton, not Edinburgh.

And, despite our advancing years, it’s good to be back, because Brighton’s May festival season just gets better and more interesting every year.

Among the interesting developments this year is a new programming method going on over at the main Brighton Festival, where the in-house programmers have been joined by a guest director/curator, this year in the form of Turner-prize winning artist Anish Kapoor. It’s a collaboration that’s generated some exciting new commissions, which we look forward to reviewing in due course.

Elsewhere, there’s the Festival Fringe which is also more promising than ever, with new venues appearing in the programme (like Fletch @ St Andrews) and some of our Edinburgh Festival friends arriving with programmes especially for the Brighton Fringe audience (like the Laughing Horse comedy team, housed at The Quadrant this May).

Plus – and I think this is a really important development – Fringe shows are doing ever-longer runs. When we first came to review in Brighton back in 2006, so many shows were one-offs, Now I see that many more shows have performances scattered throughout the month of May. Which is brilliant, because it means there’s more of a chance for you, Mr or Ms reader, to peruse our reviews and decide to go and see a show on the basis of them.

Our reviews, by the way, are accessible online on our website, at http://www.threeweeks.co.uk, or in our daily column in The Argus. Or sign up to our free eDaily and we’ll send you all the latest festival coverage direct to your inbox each day. Just send an email to brightonsubscribe@threeweeks.co.uk to get on our mailing list.

And who will be writing these reviews? Well, our 2009 ThreeWeeks review team, which – and this is where we too are getting better and more interesting – is bigger than ever before. Almost three times bigger than last year. Meaning we expect to review more shows than ever. As you may know, this review team is made up of students and aspiring young journalists taking part in the ThreeWeeks media education programme. Which means while we, the editors, may, as I said, be aging, the review team is as youthful and energetic as ever.

As well as all the reviews, there is this, the ThreeWeeks preview guide to the Brighton Festival 2009. In the following pages, you’ll find our recommendations for this year’s event, and interviews with and columns from some of the acts that we most rate. In my experience, the ThreeWeeks preview guide is a cracking good read, and I’m not remotely biased, so I highly recommend that you get on with it. Right now.

caro@threeweeks.co.uk

published: May-2009

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