It was with a heavy heart that I picked up the Brighton Festival catalogue yesterday. Everything was confirmed. Our town’s biggest event is a rip off – not just the main festival but the Fringe too. So I declare the launch of

The Fringe of The Fringe of the Brighton Festival.

All Brighton performers who think they can put on a show without ripping off the public or lining pockets of promoters – let’s reclaim the beach, contact the open art houses and see if they want to provide a venue, talk to pub landlords and bribe coffee shop owners OR just busk, busk, busk on every street corner.

Let’s give the people of BRIGHTON a taste of what they know about Art, Literature, Music and Poetry, which they experience all year round in our city  –  it is all around us and it doesn’t need to be prebooked or pompously dressed up in glossy brochures or require a second job to pay for it

AND THAT THE PEOPLE OF BRIGHTON ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES.

I am fed up with the hijack of our festival. It will eat itself and then what do we do? Time to get back to our roots.