Perhaps the number-one highlight of Brighton’s calendar of weird, wacky and wonderful events is Brighton Fringe, which attracts the greatest creative performers from Brighton, Hove and beyond. This year’s Fringe, with almost 800 events running from May 2 to June 1, promises to be even bigger, better and more Brighton than ever, as it’s the 20th anniversary of the festival. Read on to discover the old-favourites, can’t-believe-it’s-reals and must-sees at this year’s Brighton Fringe.
Read more: Brighton Fringe Festival 2025: A Guide To The Best In Live Comedy
SpiegelGardens
SpiegelGardens, the festival’s most central venue, replaces the iconic Spiegeltent this year, due to the Valley Gardens’ roadworks. Taking place in Victoria Gardens North, SpiegelGardens will be home to over 90 incredible artists and performers across the 31 nights of the festival.
At the WundaBarn, expect everything comedy, cabaret and music, from Big Quiffy Bingo’s ‘anarchistic bingo experience’ and Willy Wunderlich and the Chocolate Cabaret, to ShakeItUp’s Improvised Shakespeare Show. There are plenty of family events too, ranging from the Dinki Disco for 0-5 year olds, the mesmerising puppetry of Mischief and Mystery in Moomin Valley to the world-touring Giant Balloon Show.
If that’s not enough, the Spotlight Bandstand will be showcasing a range of free, fabulous live entertainment and pop-up showcases throughout the festival. And, if you need to rehydrate after boogying and grooving on down, there will be two different pubs: the Green-Haus with its range of quality beers, and the Spiegelpub: a party pub open all-day and into the wee hours.
Look out for the range of wonderful and wacky workshops too; whether you want to try your hand at Circus Skills, step in line at the Country Line Dancing Extravaganza or unleash your inner goddess with Cherry’s Boutique Beginners Burlesque Workshop, there will be something to try your hand at (and other body parts too) in SpiegelGardens.
Address: Victoria Gardens, North Brighton
Website: https://www.spiegelgardens.co.uk
Opening Times: Mon – Wed: 11am-00.30am, Thurs – Sat: 11am-2am, Sun: 11am-00.30am (Sun Bank Hols: 11am-2am)
The Circus Yard
Revel Puck Circus brings its vibrant energy to The Level for Brighton Fringe 2025. From May 2 to June 1, the city’s central green will host The Circus Yard, an electrifying hub of family-friendly circus acts, late-night cabaret, and immersive performances.
This exciting project marks a milestone for circus arts at Brighton Fringe, with The Circus Yard offering two impressive venues: Big Puck, a 500-capacity Big Top tent, and Little Puck, a 200-capacity Big Top. For those looking to relax and soak in the festival atmosphere, PucksBar will provide a spacious, heated stretch tent where visitors can gather without needing a ticket.
Highlights include Nose Dive Assembly, THE RUCKUS and The Ugly Duckling: A Circus Story.
Address: The Level
Website: https://www.revelpuckcircus.com/
Sabai Pavilion
The Ladyboys of Bangkok will be returning to Brighton Fringe 2025 at Sabai Pavilion, the purpose-built cabaret room, almost every day of the festival. Expect glitz, glamor and hedonistic spectacle at this show, one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the Fringe schedule.
The famous Cabaret Bohème will be making Sabai Pavilion its home on May 25, having provided joyful burlesque championing self-love and diversity in Brighton for over 12 years. Expect a captivating and empowering display of confidence, unapologetic self-love and of course, sensational cabaret, with vocal performances too!
Address: Victoria Gardens, Grand Parade, Brighton
Website: https://www.ladyboysofbangkok.co.uk/
Brighton Open Air Theatre
The iconic, 400-seater Brighton Open Air Theatre in Hove will be home to a range of theatrical performances, cabarets and productions across the Fringe. Children and families can experience magical events like a production of Winnie The Pooh; the Mushroom Show, combining games, music and storytelling with fungi facts; a dance-filled production of Puss in Boots; and the award-winning Great Baldini’s Magic Cabaret.
Expect a range of improvised comedy theatre as well, such as Impromptu Shakespeare, where audience suggestions form a brand-new Shakespeare play every time, and Locomotive for Murder: The Improvised Whodunnit, where only the killer onstage knows Whodunnit!
And, for the fourth year in a row, BOAT will be home to the exhilarating Hammer & Tongue Brighton Poetry Slam Grand Final on the 9th May. Some of Brighton & Hove’s best spoken word artists and slam poets will go verse-to-verse in a syntactical showdown, with a winner decided by lucky judges in the audience.
Address: Brighton Open Air Theatre, Dyke Road Park, Dyke Road, Hove BN3 6EH
Website: https://www.brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk/whats-on/
Komedia
In the heart of the North Laine is Komedia, hosting 19 different events Theatre, Comedy, Variety, and Literature and Spoken Word events across the Fringe.
If you’re looking to tickle your funny bones, then Komedia is a must-visit venue during (and outside of) the Fringe, with acts including the Komedia Fringe Comedy Showcase on 24th May, selling out every year from 2022 to 2024, and showcasing the very best of the next generation in Comedy. Other comic shows on offer include ‘Paddy Daddy,’ an hour of Irish comedy from international cabaret star Mark T Cox, and Dee Allen’s acclaimed ‘Deadname,’ her debut stand-up show, which she has performed on the BBC New Comedy Awards Final, ITV’s The Stand Up Sketch Show and Comedy Central Live.
Literary intrigue awaits, too, starting with the not-to-be-missed ’Rosy Carrick’s Poetry Gang Bang’ featuring a tag-teaming menagerie of 15 poetry and spoken word performers over the May 21 to 22. If you’re not full after all of that poetical delight, then Susan Evans’ ’Amuse Bouche’ promises to serve up an hour of flavorful spoken word, perfectly tantalising your textual taste buds on May 26.
Theatre productions at Komedia include ‘Light Fantastic’ – a comedy rock musical for all the family, exploring science, friendship, and (you guessed it) light, and ‘Robotales,’ as featured in the New York Times, Financial Times and New Scientist, where the audience controls the fate of human improvisers exploring an AI-generated story.
Address: Komedia, 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton. BN1 1UN
Website: https://www.komedia.co.uk/
Walks
This year’s Fringe is also offering a host of journey-based events and walks, with meet-points across the city. Walks range from the 3-hour Beer Tour or Food Tour experiences, meeting outside St. Bartholomew’s Church, and walking tours discovering the oft-hidden aspects of Brighton’s history, from the strikers and saboteurs on the Subversive Sussex Walk to the Witchcraft and Magic Tour meeting at The Old Steine Cafe.
You can also enjoy the classic Guru Dudu’s Silent Disco Walking Tours, or for a touch of class, join one of the of explorations of Brighton’s historic buildings like Brighton Station, Palmeira Mansions, or Sea Life Brighton – the world’s oldest operating aquarium!
Rotunda Theatre
Not to be confused with the Rotunda Cafe, the three-part pop-up Rotunda Theatre will be home to over 40 distinct events over the Fringe!
Not-to-be-missed performances include a range of adaptations of classic literature, including Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull,’ a solo-performance of Moby Dick by Ross Ericson and ‘Julia. After 1984,’ after escape from the Thought Police.
Comedy acts include the meta, WIP ‘Funnymentals,’ finding the comedy in writing comedy, and ‘CATGPT’, presenting a Welsh cat reanimating as a life-coach with a little help from AI.
Families and young people of all ages must check out the Bubble Show, with an hour-long bubble-ception experience formed from bubbles of all shapes and sizes on selected dates between the May 3 and 24.
Address: Regency Square, Brighton, BN1 2FG
Website: https://www.rotundatheatre.com/whatson
The Lantern @Act
Towards Kemptown on St James’ Street, The Lantern will be a must-visit venue throughout the Fringe.
A range of genre-defying performances will be staged, from ‘Katherine & Pierre’, combining acrobatics with mime, choreo and the music of Katy Perry, to ‘The Wardrobe of Love’, a one-woman gig/cabaret/fashion show from Abi Hercules, featuring showstopping songs, outfits and storytelling.
A variety of familiar characters are reimagined through works at The Lantern, whether you’d prefer the the post-Midsummer Night’s Dream ‘Puck in Epilogue,’ or ‘Prospero’s Dead,’ a fully-nude performance set five years after The Tempest. Portrayals of historical figures feature too, including a former lover of Lord Byron in ‘Dangerous to Know,’ Nelly Power – the UK’s original Drag King in ‘Marie Lloyd Stole My Life’ and French Composer Maurice Ravel in ‘In Search of The Dance.’
In addition to more theatre plays and productions than can be named here, expect comedy and improvisation, such as the improvised mockumentary ‘The Workplace,’ the comedy whodunnit play ‘Murder At The Manor’ and ‘Lucky and Shaft: The Death of Dennis Bash,’ where two detectives bumble their way around a murder case.
Check out the fully-packed schedule on the website below.
Address: 77 St James’s Street, Kemptown, Brighton
Website: https://lanterntheatrebrighton.co.uk/listings-new/
Brighton Unitarian Church
At the stunning Brighton Unitarian Church, expect mesmerising music like Piano recitals from New York’s Beth Levin, and internationally celebrated concert pianists Margaret Fingerhut and Mike Hatchard. Jazz and music lovers can also enjoy two shows from Brighton Fringe Jazz Club on the May 9 and 23, featuring piano, saxophone, vocals and more.
Also on offer will be a range of feminist theatre pieces like ‘Darwin’s Cleaner,’ exploring Victorian servant to the Darwins Henrietta Brown; and ‘Out Of Character,’ a production challenging hyper-masculine storytelling through often overlooked and unheard female voices.
One to watch, too, is the supernatural rock musical ‘The Angel of Death Will See You Now…’ where the audience help to save a teacher’s soul from the quizmaster Angel of Death, or’ More Jazzy Jewels & Peppery Poems!’ where poetry, jazz, vocals and piano combine to form a rich and imaginative evening of performance.
Address: Brighton Unitarian Church, New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UF
Website: Fringe Events at Brighton Unitarian Church
Ironworks Studios
Across three separate performance spaces, Ironworks Studios will host a variety of theatre, music and variety acts.
Theatre on offer includes classic ensemble productions like ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time‘: a murder-mystery like no other, and a range of solo performances too, like ‘Second Class Queer,’ which won the winner of Fringe Team’s Mental Health Award; ‘Privileged,’ a participatory solo show centred around the Polar Bear, and ‘End Game,’ a solo show featuring nine different characters, nominated for Best New Play at Brighton Fringe 2018.
Cabaret and variety acts will also be making Ironwork Studios their home, including ‘Ginger’s Big Drag Bingo,’ on May 9, where live-DJs provide a musical party backdrop to the decisively not-your-average bingo experience, alongside stunning drag performances.
Fancy getting involved yourself? Then why not go along to The Time Warp Extravaganza: a Rocky Horror dance and drag show/experience, with dressing-up and singing-along to your favourite Rocky Horror tunes highly encouraged.
Address: Ironworks Studios, 30 Cheapside, Brighton, BN1 4GD
Website: https://www.ironworks-studios.co.uk/brighton-fringe-at-ironworks-studios
Read more: ‘We’re Hosting A Brighton Fringe Festival Venue In Our Living Room’
For the full list of Brighton Fringe 2025 events, happening all across the city, you can find the official website here: https://www.brightonfringe.org/
