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Brighton Festival takes over the city from 1-25 May, and there is lots on offer for students, including free events, £10-and-under tickets, and performances right here on campus at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA). As the official Higher Education Partner for the festival, we’re making sure our students and staff have every chance to get involved.

Whether you are after a study break, some creative inspiration, or just to enjoy some time with friends, here are some highlights to add to your calendar.

Free events not to miss

Soft Machines

Saturday 2 - Sunday 24 May

Installed on Hove Promenade, Soft Machines is a new, large-scale outdoor public artwork by Ivan Morison, developed with long-term collaborator Heather Peak. It explores the bodies that make a city, and the plurality of love, intimacy and desire between them.

The Lost Woods - Art from the Ashes

Wednesday 6 May, Session 1: 10am-12pm, Session 2: 1.30-3.30pm

Join this free Lost Woods of the Low Weald and Downs project for a unique, hands‑on experience learning how to make artists’ charcoal in a beautiful private woodland near Hassocks.

Youth Curated Weekend: Sounds Like Us: Visual Art Exhibition

Sunday 24 May, 10am-12pm

A bold, youth-curated event reimagining the sounds of yesterday for today. Taking inspiration from music of the 1960s, emerging performers aged 14-19 from Sussex will take over Brighton Dome Studio Theatre for an afternoon of visual art.

Discover more free events from Brighton Festival.

Great shows for £10 or less

Tomorrowisnowtodayisyesterday

Sunday 10 May, 7.30pm. £10

Sung Im Her looks at the impact of social media on society as it focuses on oversharing, over-saturation and the bombardment of information. Performed on a stage, three dancers perform overly produced gestures, as they move between their independent selves, into a shared entanglement and back again, blurring the lines of their individual and collective identities.

Selina Nwulu: Black Climates

Saturday 16 May 2026, 8.15pm. £10

Hear as Selina Nwulu, former Young People’s Laureate for London, talks to writer, stylist and consultant Aja Barber about subjects such as air pollution, prison ecology, disability justice, migration, food, nature, community care, and radical imagination and providing the tools to envisage more equitable futures.

See more events under £10 in the Brighton Festival.

On your doorstep: Brighton Festival on campus

Several Brighton Festival events are taking place right here on campus, bringing theatre, talks and experimental performance straight to Sussex:

What We Talk About When We Talk About Magic

Friday 15 May, 6pm. ACCA. £10

Join critically acclaimed sleight-of hand artist Vincent Gambini for an unmissable chance to peek behind the wizard's curtain. You are invited to discover how a magician goes about developing a new theatre show, and to offer your own take on magic and illusion.

Queering the Archive: Who Gets To Tell Our Stories? - Festival of Ideas

Sunday 24 May, 2pm. The Teaching Room in the Library. £5

Join Aghh! Zine and Erin James for a dynamic workshop exploring grassroots creativity, archives and library collections, supported by the University’s Danny Millum and Dr Samuel Solomon. You will explore tensions between traditional collecting and DIY storytelling.

See more events taking place at the ACCA in the Brighton Festival.

See more of the Festival of Ideas events in the Brighton Festival programme.

Where to get tickets

• Check out all the free events, the events under £10 and the events taking place at the ACCA on the Brighton Festival website.
• You can see the full programme of events here.
• Keep an eye on the Student Hub for ticket offers and competitions for Sussex students.