Artistic Director Deborah Roberts says: “Finally we are back as a full autumn festival after some challenging years! It was interesting to experiment with spreading our activities throughout the seasons but, by popular demand, our main focus now returns to three October weekends. Come and join us!”

Taking place in a variety of venues across the city, the main festival events run Friday 13 – Saturday 28 October 2023. Highlights include:

• The Gesualdo Six and Fretwork with immersive music drama Secret Byrd directed by Bill Barclay (13 October)
• BBC Music Magazine award-winners Helen Charlston and Toby Carr celebrating women in history (21 October) and 
• The Whispering Dome – a large-scale multi media event bringing together music from Europe, Morocco and West Africa (15 October)

The Festival will also be hosting its annual showcase of up and coming early music ensembles (21 October) and welcoming back several ensembles including Ensemble Hesperi and Fieri Consort who have been part of the young artist scheme in previous years.

Before the main Festival, a series of pre-events run from 16 September offering opportunities to take part in choral and instrumental workshops (16 & 30 September), or bring the whole family for OAE TOTS family concerts (7 October) or a ceilidh celebrating the music of John Playford’s The English Dancing Master (30 September). 

BREMF will be popping up around the city too, with free performances of music by William Byrd (23 September) and a baroque-ground-bass-meets-jazz fusion event (12 October).

Tickets start at £5, and are free for under-12s & half price for 12-25s, students and benefit recipients and go on general sale on 31 July following priority booking for Festival Friends.

Browse the full festival programme and book tickets (from 31 July) at www.bremf.org.uk/whats-on

Cathy Boyes

Festival Producer, Brighton Early Music Festival

The post Brighton Early Music Festival Returns at Full Strength for 2023 appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.

• It has rained at 74% of Glastonbury Festivals
• Only nine Glastonbury weekends have been completely rain-free
• UK flights to LA in April (Coachella festival), have increased 81% in last 4 years
• Flights to LA around Coachella increased by 30% in April 2017, compared to March
• Over 51% of holidaymakers said exploring was top of their to-do list
• A further 24% said adventure made them happy on holiday

With Summer nearly upon us, Brits are looking towards the festival season to get music vibes, foodie flavours and culture kicks. The UK festival season traditionally aligns with the British summer months for weather reasons, but wellies, brollies and waterproofs are an all-too-familiar part of our British festival kit. But with no Glastonbury this year, sun-hungry Brits are jetting-off for global festival adventures all year round.

To mark this trend, leading tailor-made travel expert Travelbag has hand-picked a bucket list of the world’s most renowned and celebrated festivals, providing festival revellers with their perfect match. And with the world as your oyster, festival-goers can enjoy great weather all year round by chasing the sun around the globe (no need to pack your wellies).

Looking for a Glastonbury alternative in its year off? Why not take a cable car to the mountain-top destination of the Naeba Ski Resort, Japan for Fuji Rock, Japan’s largest outdoor music festival in July. Or on Glastonbury weekend there is Hong Kong’s Dumpling Festival for foodies, complete with a thrilling dragon boat race.

When most Brits are hibernating in the winter months, Travelbag’s global festivals tour suggests discovering the Day of the Dead in Mexico City in early November. You can enjoy nights of singing and dancing with costumes in riotous colours and the traditional sugar skull features in abundance. Or in December, adventurous travellers could visit Magnetic Fields electronic music festival at a 17th-century palace in Rajasthan, India.

Travelbag has included a variety of alternative festivals providing once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable experiences for every visitor. Travellers can explore cutting-edge technology and revel in the creative energy throughout Sydney at the month-long, multi-award-winning Vivid festival of light, marvel at the beautiful sights on offer at China’s Lantern Festival and Vancouver’s Celebration of Light or immerse themselves in Thailand’s legendary Songkran Festival.

Paul Hopkinson, Marketing Director at Travelbag comments, “We’ve seen an 81% increase in flight bookings to LA in the last 4 years in April around the Coachella festival period. This trend for culture-hungry travellers is why we’ve hand-picked this bucket list of the world’s most renowned and celebrated festivals, providing keen festival-revellers with their perfect match. With no Glastonbury this year and the world as your oyster, British festival fans can enjoy the sun all year-round with our handy interactive guide.”

Hopkinson continues, “At Travelbag we help our customers create tailor-made travel plans to suit their exact needs and we hope the Global Festivals Tour will inspire the discovery of new experiences, cultures and adventures on their holidays.”

Explore Travelbag’s unique virtual heat map to uncover more about each festival hotspot. Filter by food, music and even literature, or plot your plans by date to select the ideal festival destination. To find out more, check out the Global Festivals Tour.

The post No Glastonbury? Looking for festival ideas? appeared first on Wellbeing Magazine.