Brighton Fringe 2014 Reports Record Number of Early Bird Registrations; Award-Winners Announced

Brighton Fringe received a record number of registrations before the early bird deadline closed earlier this week. People have been eager to take part in the open-access festival with 186 shows, nearly double the 105 events registered at this time last year, confirmed for the May event. Registrations are still flooding in with the cut-off point over a month away (31 January).

This year Brighton Fringe worked closely with a number of partners to offer cash awards and mentoring to participants and some of these award-winners make up the long list of early bird registrants.

Twelve local companies were awarded a free registration through the Legal & General bursary scheme with winners including:

Comedy:

The Neuro Foundation Benefit, Doctor Bongo Presents... Something Wholly Inappropriate, Funny Side Up! Presents...

Kids & Youth:

Ripley Theatre presents Jack and the Beans... Talk, The Cliffhanger Company present Just So!, Tin Can Stories

Music:

The Time Being, Chaos Carousel, Sahaja Yoga Presents: Sacred World Music

Theatre:

Reunion Theatre Company presents Skirmishes, Company by Stephen Sondheim, Tristan O Theatre Company present Twenty to Something

New for this year were The Pebble Trust Brighton Fringe awards with three young people from Brighton and Hove awarded £300 plus mentoring. The winners were:

- Tom Sissons, an 18-year-old spoken word poet and playwright, putting on his own one-man spoken word show.
- Charlotte Dearing, an actress, writer, director and producer, putting on her revamped version of a music hall performance.
- Ben Macfadyen, part of Feral Theatre, and their piece Invisible Giant; a performance looking at how we relate to plastic.

As well as these awards for local participants, four Brighton Fringe registrants were awarded £1000 each from the IdeasTap Brighton Fringe Funds, enabling them to bring their new productions to Brighton Fringe 2014. The four winners were:

- Alice Carter, Sleeping Trees Theatre - Mafia
- Sian Ni Mhuiri, Super Paua - Aunty Ben
- Ben Macfadyen, Feral Theatre - Invisible Giant
- Jessica Cheetham - Beowulf

Ben Macfadyen, winner of both a Pebble Trust Brighton Fringe award and an IdeasTap Brighton Fringe Fund, said: "It is encouraging to know that there is an appetite for family shows tackling challenging issues such as ours. The awards will help us create a really professional piece of theatre, broaden our audience and take us to a high profile fringe venue."

There are still awards available to Brighton Fringe participants including Think Big with O2 and the Zequs Match Funding awards.

Julian Caddy, Managing Director of Brighton Fringe, said: "The early bird registration figures always offer a good indication of what to expect for the coming festival which makes this year's numbers quite startling. Registration remains open until 31st January though, so if you have something that you would like to put on, I can't imagine a better way to spend Christmas than to plan your Fringe debut. We look forward to helping you on that journey!"

Brighton Fringe is a completely open access festival which sets out to stimulate, educate and entertain a wide audience by providing a showcase for diverse art forms. Registration is open until 31 January 2014 and the festival takes place from 3 May - 1 June 2014.

For more information visit brightonfringe.org or call Brighton Fringe Participant Services on 01273 764900.

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