Festivals in Brighton

May is the big Festival month in Brighton & Hove with four major festivals bringing 1000s of events to the city including performing arts; theatre; classical & contemporary music; dance and the downright bizarre!


Check out our news story to get a taste of what's to come and don't forget to book your accommodation early to avoid disappointment!

Charlotte

Brighton Toy & Model Museum celebrates 20th anniversary in 2011

This year one of Brighton's best loved attractions will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. The Brighton Toy & Model Museum is situated underneath Brighton Station with over 10,000 exhibits on display including a collection of model trains dating from the 1860s to the present day.

Throughout 2011 there will be a number of events to celebrate the museum's 20th anniversary the first of which will be a special train running day on Saturday 23rd April starring the 0 and 00 gauge layouts, the theme of the day will be ‘Edinburgh to Venice’ incorporating a host of European favourites.

The Museum does have a lot of nostalgic toys however it is also embracing the future and the Brighton Toy & Model Museum has its own blog and they are on Twitter and Facebook so why not follow them to find out more.

And don't forget to follow Love_Brighton on Twitter and Facebook too!

Charlotte

Brighton Marathon 8 weeks to go....

Here is the latest update on how Andrew Mosley, General Manager of The Grand, is progressing with his Brighton Marathon training...

Let battle commence!

With just 8 weeks to go we’ve found out that out nearest and dearest rivals, The Hilton Hotel, have also entered a team in The Marathon Corporate Challenge. The best 3 runners count so the gauntlet has been laid down and training has suddenly become serious! I think the press will get hold of it so keep your eyes open for the stories.

Personally I’m up to 14 miles on my training runs now. At this distance you get a mixture of emotions – mostly pain and boredom. I mean it’s hard to get too excited by a round trip to the Shoreham Power Station and then up to The Marina and back! Especially in last week’s wind and rain. Actually my run was all going well until I turned back on to Marine Parade, (having already completed 12 miles) straight in to the teeth of the wind and driving rain. As I ran I could see normal people (not me clearly) in front of their televisions, drinking tea, enjoying the warmth of their homes, having a relaxing evening. I must admit I had one of those “what the hell am I doing” moments! Oh and by now it was past 9.30 at night just to make matters worse!

But overall it still feels good and I can see the finishing line in sight – well more the start line – but you know what I mean. The key is now to stay injury free, keep the diet sensible and work up slowly to some 18 mile runs. I’m told once you start doing those then you’re pretty much ready for the big one. We’ll see!

If you find my BLOG vaguely amusing or want to find out more why not follow our comments on Twitter? Just search for Grandbrighton.

And don’t forget our team’s Just Giving Page

Regards

Andrew

Brighton Festival 2011 Guest Director Aung San Suu Kyi

Image courtesy of Brighton Festival 2011.

You may have heard by now that the 2011 Guest Artistic Director for the 2011 Brighton Festival is the courageous leader, human rights advocate and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Following in the footsteps of Anish Kapoor and Brian Eno, the Guest Artistic Director position has become an integral part of the increasingly renowned Brighton Festival and its a real credit to the Festival that they have secured such an incredible political figure.

Although as such a liberal city, Brighton does also feel the perfect choice for such a figure too.

Aung San Suu Kyi has fought passionately for over two decades for democracy and human rights in Burma and taken to the heart of this year’s Brighton Festival is her plea ‘use your liberty to promote ours’, with artists, both local and international, presenting a powerful and wide-ranging programme.

2011 Festival Highlights

Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration to many people around the world and particularly to many within the arts community. Some of the Brighton Festival 2011 highlight events include:

• a new co-commissioned work by Turkish artist Kutluğ Ataman
• a revival of the acclaimed site-specific theatre commission The New World Order by theatre company Hydrocracker based on Pinter’s political plays
• Beethoven’s powerful hymn to freedom Fidelio in a concert performance with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Adam Fischer
• Asian Dub Foundation, Music of Resistance.
  

The books and debate programme also takes up this year’s freedom themes with a fascinating line up including:

• Peter Taylor the BBC investigative journalist and author of Talking to Terrorists
• Izzeldin Abuelaish, author of I Shall Not Hate
• a debate on ‘The Future of Burma’ with Sue Lloyd Roberts, Zoya Phan – Burmese refugee and activist with Burma Campaign and Robert Gordon, Ambassador to Burma 1995-1999
• a discussion entitled ‘Article 19’ on Freedom of Information and the right to know with Julian Assange.
  

It's not expected that Aung San Suu Kyi will actually attend this year's festival, however she has stated:

“It is especially pleasing for me to see, albeit remotely, Brighton Festival taking shape this year, and to think that so many people will come together in May to celebrate great art and experience the inner peace it brings...I wish everyone involved in Brighton Festival this year – the artists and the audience – the happiest of times. And thank you – please continue to use your liberty to promote ours.”

Find out more about Brighton Festival

Brighton Festival and Brighton Festival Fringe take Brighton by storm every year for 3 culture busting weeks during May. You can also read what the Guardian have to say on their website.

To find out more about Festivals in Brighton throughout the whole year, visit our Festivals in Brighton Timeline.

Sarah
VisitBrighton

Hotels and Latin Lounge

Working for VisitBrighton it is important for us to have a good product knowledge which basically means we get to nose around funky hotels and sample new bars all as part of the job (is there an emoticon for a smug face?)

Last night a group of us went to visit a couple of hotels in Regency Square. First up was Hotel Pelirocco, which has been open for about 10 years making it one of the first themed hotels to open up in the city. Every room has been individually styled and last night we saw Pussy, Stoli Salon, The Pin-Up Parlour, Pretty Vacant, The Ocean Room and the Nooki Room. As this is a family website I can't say too much about the Nooki room but I will just say that the bed has a slight twist to it...

Our next stop was Artist Residence where each room is a work of art - literally! Each month the hotel has an artist in residence who works in the basement studio and then exhibits their work at the end of the month in the hotel's gallery. But in addition to this each room has been designed by a different artist and the plan is to change the rooms every 12 - 18 months.

After visiting the hotels it was time to move on to Latin Lounge, a new tapas bar/restaurant giving Brightonians a flavour of Spain. To go with our Sangria we had a vast selection of tapas dishes including some very tasty meatballs and whilst I'm not a Calamari fan my colleagues assure me it was fantastic. Another good sign was the fact that a lot of the clientele was Spanish which shows that the food & drink must be authentic. If you are wondering where to take your loved one next Monday (aka Valentine's Day) then I'd definitely recommend the Latin Lounge as Monday night is Flamenco night, see our website for details of the special Valentine's night dinner and show.

Charlotte

Brighton Marathon training update

It is now time to hand you over to Andrew Mosley, General Manager of The Grand Hotel, to see how he is getting on with his training for the Brighton Marathon...

After last week’s lapse in training I’ve managed to haul myself back on track this week. A cross country run in the rain on Saturday (nice) and then Shoreham Power station and back. Another long run at the weekend along with an hour in the gym will round off a good 7 days. Oh, and a lot less partying last weekend than recently – that definitely helps!!

Outside my training it’s been another varied week in the life of a Grand Hotel General Manager with the highlight undoubtedly being a visit to Varndean school to meet children in year 10. They have signed up to work on a charity project supporting the Edward Starr Trust. We’re involved because we have volunteered some of our time to lend a bit of business acumen to the project which will ultimately mean that children at the Shika Project in Tanzania will have a better life. It’s all part of the Edward Starr Partnership CHOCS scheme – Children Helping Other Children Smile. It’s a fantastic cause and personally very fulfilling – please check it out by looking at The Edward Starr Trust website.

The good thing about this training is the fact that you can pretty much eat as much as you want and don’t put on weight!! On Tuesday I met a business friend, Ryan Heal, from Juice FM for some lunch at Jamie’s. There was stunned silence from Ryan as I tucked into a very large portion of Tiramisu when the polite thing to do would have been to just have coffee!! Anyway it was a double win as Ryan paid and I think I managed to persuade him to let the children from Varndean get some air time on his radio station to launch their project. Thanks Ryan.

As you may know The Grand is sponsoring the kids mini mile marathon races on April 10th so in true spirit I’ve signed my kids up which they claim they are now training for by upping the time spent on their Wii!! I’m not so sure this constitutes training but there you go!! I believe there are spaces left if you’ve got kids and think they are a future gold medallist or could more likely do with some fresh air!! If they do enter please ask them to raise funds for the Variety Club and in turn they can win fantastic prizes and so can you as a parent –all the details are on the Brighton Marathon web site.

Finally, as ever if you would like to make a difference and help me with my quest then please visit our team’s Just Giving Page, donate some money and leave a message.

Regards


Andrew

Inside the Royal Pavilion & Brighton Museums

The aim of our blog is to give you an insider's guide to what is going on in the city, whether it's upcoming events, new developments or just something a bit quirky.

Of course our blog covers the whole of Brighton & Hove, so if you would like a more in-depth look at the Royal Pavilion & Brighton Museums you will be delighted to hear that our charming colleagues have their own blog to give you a taste of life behind the scenes of these fabulous attractions.

The blog is written by staff and volunteers at:

• The Royal Pavilion
• Brighton Museum & Art Gallery (including the Brighton History Centre)
• Hove Museum & Art Gallery
• Booth Museum of Natural History
• Preston Manor

and includes sneak previews of exhibitions, some great images from the archives and Personality of the Month which celebrates a Brighton character from the history books.

To see the blog go to: http://rpmcollections.wordpress.com although please do still read our blog as well!

Charlotte