Eventful Brighton

In June 2007, to the anger of many Brighton residents, developers arrived on land next to Anston House, Preston Road, Brighton and bulldozed about ten mature oaks and copper beeches which had Tree Protection Orders. Soon afterwards, protesters set up camp on the land. I spoke to Colin West and Sandra Dunne, 2 of the protesters, to get their views.

Mischa Hewitt of The Low Carbon Network takes Andy on a tour of the Brighton Earthship. Imagine a building that heats itself during the winter, cools itself during the summer, deals with it’s own waste, collects all the water it needs from the environment, is made from old car tyres, and looks beautiful - that’s an earthship.

Andy does his best to get a feel for Pride even though he arranged to go visit his in-laws on the day - Wooooops!

Meet a guy who regularly performs a three point turn - with an atom! Learn how to measure the charge separation in a neutron - and change the course of String Theory. Hear about a technology that could fly you from Tokyo to New York in under two hours. All this happened at the University of Sussex in their Ingenious event where the exciting world of science and research was opened for all to see.

Strolling along Gardiner Street in the North Laines, I heard these two guys producing an amazing sound, they were Danny and Matias, who call themselves Rishikesh. I just had to record them for the show. Matias was playing the didgeridoo and Danny had what looked like an up-side-down wok - actually a hang drum. Enjoy.

Opinions and thoughts on some of the acts in the Brighton Festival from two of our reviewers Jo in Brighton and Lee in Shoreham. Listen in to see what they thought of Dr Ivor Hairy Bum and Dr Willy Wee, Cirque Surreal, He Said She Said, Slaughterhouse, Ida Barr and The Caesar Twins.

The Udderbelly is a big, blue, up-side-down cow that tours the country attending various festivals including our very own Brighton Fringe Festival. I had the pleasure of sitting in the Udderbelly bar (actually a tent) and chatting with two comedy sketch teams who were playing there, Greedy (Louie Bayliss, Felicity Wren, Rachel Egan, Alan Freestone and James Wren) and The Pros from Dover (Neil Cole, Phil Whelans and Richard Glover). Learn all about bowel gas problems, accidents that only rich people can have and what it’s like to be kissed on the head by Jodie Kidd, what Rick Mayall is really like and how to succeed in cow tipping.

The Streets of Brighton took place on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th May. Enjoy an outdoor period drama, giant prawns doing a striptease, lively outdoor music from a group of frogmen, blokes in pubs, an incredible gong shower, a hydraulic caravan and some splendid, pulsating tree lights. Artists featured/mentioned/could be heard in background:- Swervy World - were the Deep Sea Jivers Tantrum Theatre - were The Prawns Spiral Flight - performed Caravan of Desires Ramshacklicious - (pictured) performed The Road to Nowhere Paka the Uncredible - performed Flogging a dead horse Orkestra Del Sol - performed Fanfare Hoodwink - performed Pleasure Garden Aswarm - Gather (The lights in the trees)

On the first Sunday every May, Queens Park in Brighton becomes host to a bunch of May Day celebrations from green-clad nymphettes doing fertility dances around a maypole, to live theatre, to folk bands. Despite cool, grey skies, there was plenty happening - I’m glad I went! Mentioned in this show:- Bloodstone Arts Suffolk Howlers

With mike in hand, I venture into Jubilee Square to capture the essence of Fringe City. I meet a man wearing a judge’s wig, a man with giant cardboard ears and a man making funny sounds with a guitar, a laptop and lots of wires. I also meet lots of lovely people who promise to review the performances they see during the festival - horah!