Local residents enjoyed a fun-filled day of discovery at the Community Festival on Sunday (25 June).

There were lots of fun activities for families, including crafting and storytelling.

Vice-Chancellor Adam Tickell, and the Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Mo Marsh, joined in the fun at the Community Festival.

Local residents enjoyed a fun-filled day of discovery last weekend at the University of Sussex’s first ever free Community Festival.

Thousands of people flocked to the campus for the festival on Sunday (25 June), with a steel band, fairground stalls and bouncy castles creating a carnival atmosphere.

For families, there were circus classes, storytelling sessions and even a Teddy Bear Hospital where trainee doctors helped children to treat their poorly teddies.

Members of the local community also learned more about the University’s research and teaching through a range of talks, demonstrations and interactive workshops.

Vice-Chancellor Adam Tickell, and the Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Mo Marsh, both joined in the fun at the Community Festival.

Professor Tickell said: “I’m thrilled that we could welcome so many local people onto our campus for a day of fun and discovery.  I’m also grateful to our staff and students for helping to make the day such a success.

“We are the University for Sussex as well as the University of Sussex, and events like this are a great way of building relationships and strengthening our ties with the local community.”

Among the highlights of the day were a number of events giving a taste of the University’s ground‑breaking research and teaching.

Visitors learned about how the justice system works by taking part in a mock trial, and were invited into Sussex’s laboratories where the medicines of the future are being created.

Elsewhere, staff from Sussexsport offered visitors the chance to try out sports activities including volleyball, squash and tag archery, while the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts played host to a live jazz band.

One guest tweeted, “Superb community festival @SussexUni today – took part in a mock trial arguing for the Crown in a murder appeal mooting. Great stuff”.  Another visitor praised the “cool free activities” on offer.

The Community Festival is one of a number of ways in which the University is seeking to strengthen its ties with the local community.

Sussex staff and students have been conducting regular street cleans around the city – so far, they have worked with local residents to clean up Beaconsfield Road, Viaduct Road, Washington Street, Coleman Street and Riley Road.

On top of this, the University’s Housing team has recently launched a new scheme where Sussex students act as ‘Community Ambassadors’.

The scheme sees students visiting residents in certain areas of the city and talking to them about community projects in their area, as well as providing information on services offered by the University.

You can find out more about the University’s community engagement activities, and how you can get involved, on our ‘Sussex in the Community’ webpages.