FemFestBrighton this March celebrates the fifth anniversary as Brighton’s only arts festival made by and for AFAB, Non-Binary and Trans+ people.
The festival runs from 7th-10th March at The Actors and The Feminist Bookshop. Tickets for the twenty-seven events are selling fast, with two already sold out and others getting close. Maddie Ross, Artistic Director of FemFest, proclaims, "We have theatre, cabaret, workshops, clown, poetry, comedy and much much more at our little Feminist Utopia. There really is something for everyone". She stresses also that the event supports the very specific groups it embraces and that ticket sales enable the organisation to "keep bringing you rebellious and experimental work year on year".
Highlights include:
● Brand new Poetry-Theatre Piece Monument from Tatenda Naomi Matsvai, one of the Barbican Young Poets for 2022-23;
● Banana Beard, a musical-comedy show from Su Mi, winner of the Keep It Fringe Fund (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) 2023, the Luke Rollason Memorial Bursary 2023, QUEEROVISION 2022 and Beat The Frog 2022, among others.
● Bisexuelle (work in progress), a brand-new work from Selena Mersey, who was a FemFest Early Career Artist in 2023 and went on to win the Brighton Fringe Lamb Comedy Award 2023, the Brighton Fringe Seagull and Best Concept in 2023 with her previous show Madonna/Whore.
● Unforgettable Girl by Elisabeth Gunawan and Saksi Bisou joins the line-up after rave reviews at Edinburgh Fringe 2023.
● Bellydancing Workshop from Cairo-trained Belly Dancer, Lucy Andrina.
● Three brand-new Early Career Artists who are being mentored and assisted by FemFest to make their work tourable following the festival. These artists include: Ineka Collective with Pleasure Chapters: No More Salad (navigating beauty standards, health, and body image through dance and storytelling.); Lucy Gaydecki with Lovely Day (a verbatim show that explores motherhood through the specific popular-culture lens of Mumsnet) and Linda(?) from Ellie Brewster (a clown piece that looks at how far women have been taught to cater to other people's needs);
● Everyone’s favourite drag-Dad Bertie Hodd aka Dad (Winner: Brighton Drag Pageant 2023) is bringing a brand new cabaret night to the festival called Gender Blender, platforming the best, weirdest and most wonderful trans+ artists from Brighton and beyond.
There's also a bold new play-poem from Amiot about dead gay grandads, memorials made of twigs, and how we as the queer community mourn and remember. Called, I Am Going To Build A Chapel In The Woods For Every Dead Queer That History Has Forgotten And I Need Your Help, it has to be seen if only for the length of its title.
