Congratulations to all our fantastic winners at this year's Brighton Fringe Awards.
Hosted by The Old Market and featuring the talents of C'est Magnifique and Pearl & Dean, we had a fantastic time at the ceremony - celebrating the Fringe and our very worthy winners.
As part of this prize package, MEAT will perform at The Nest at Chichester Festival Theatre on Thursday 25th June as part of their Pick of Brighton Fringe programme. Get your tickets here!
We are delighted to announce the shortlists for the 2026 Brighton Fringe Awards! Whilst some awards are self nominations, others are solely chosen by our partners.
This shortlist also doesn't include our Audience Choice awards, which are presented to Best Show, Best Comedy, Best Large Venue, Best Small Venue, and will be announced at our Fringe Awards ceremony on Sunday 31 May, along with the winners of all the awards below.
2ShoulderPads: GALAXY TRAIN : 2ShoulderPads
Unforgettable: An Alzheimer's Cabaret!: Tamara Astor
Eat The Rich - Church of Italo
The Bitten Peach - Bitten Peach
Progress in Work - All That Bex
Iterum Felix: Happy Again
Whistleblower Gallery
Home Away From Home: Bridges In Between Amrita Chandradas
Soft Knocks at Gallery 19a
Enduring Violence: Bhopal Phoenix
Out of the Bin: Pebble Theatre
SQUELCH!: Split Hairs
For The Record: Salt Air Stories
Not Another Group Chat!!!: Grace Eyre
Reminiscing with Adunni Alaalo: Tell-A-Tale Productions
Alice in Wonderland: Let's All Dance Ballet Company
The Blue Knot: Merryweather Theatre
The Emperors New Clothes: Strings Attached Puppets
Fishy Tales with the Seabream Sisters
Fluffin & The Shooting Star: Elen Agasiants
Flyaway Katie: Long Nose Puppets
Kpop Cabaret Showdown: Bitten Peach
Madame Chandelier's Grand Theft Opera: Delea Shand
A History Mystery: Performing Arts Studio Scotland
Mr Sleepbum's Dream Machine: Jody Kamali Presents
Signor Baffo: Oh! Productions
Dentata: Julia Vanderveen
2ShoulderPads: GALAXY TRAIN : 2ShoulderPads
My Date with Pierce Brosnan: Alistair Aitcheson
That's Just the Way It's (Un)Done: Rowan for Now
Unforgettable: An Alzheimer's Cabaret!: Tamara Astor
MEAT - Elle Dillon-Reams
John Callaghan's Electro Cabaret: John Callaghan
Babel Beast: Kitchen Table Theatre
BEAVERHAUSEN: Veronica Von Beaverhausen
Therapist Zero: Brian Leonard
Every Single Sound in the World: Natalie Patuzzo
For Puck's Sake: Hobgoblin Theatre Company
GET BETTER: Mads Nodding
INTO THE PIT: AK Golding
The Blue Knot: Merryweather Theatre
The Emperors New Clothes: Strings Attached Puppets
Fishy Tales with the Seabream Sisters
Fluffin & The Shooting Star: Elen Agasiants
Madame Chandelier's Grand Theft Opera: Delea Shand
Norman's Big Day Out: Adam Havsky
Out of the Box: Darryl J Carrington
SQUELCH!: Split Hairs
MEAT: Elle Dillon-Reams
One Foot In The Dark: Divija Melally & Saili Katebe
Essense: Heels Show: Essense Heels
Jamie Byrne's Delightful History of Cigarettes: Jamie Byrne
Guess Boo - The Mystery of my Nans Ashes: Lost Hippo
Chunxiangs's Schoolroom Prank: Jingkun Chinese Arts
Mr Boy: The Beauty Contest for Boys: Hooray!
Joz Norris Is Hugh Jackman Is the Phantom of the Opera: Joz Norris
Late Night with Terry Wogan: Benjamin Alborough
#GIRLBOSSGOD: Alison Arnopp
Lil Wenker: BOYKING: Lil Wenker
The Faustus Project: Half Trick Theatre
Isabelle Glinn on Ice: Isabelle Glinn
Poppies: GAIT Productions
Are You Even Indian?: Mohit Mathur
Mothman: A Romance Musical: Liebenspiel Presents
Custard Club: Whole Headache
For The Record: Salt Air Stories
Alexis Sakellaris: CHILD STAR
Fate Train: FOLKS. Theatre
This Can’t Be It: Lawrence Dodd
In the Air
WENCH: Felix le Freak
This is How I Got Arrested: Azaelia Slade
Mrs Gary Breath: Ellie Ross
Red Biscuit: Little Town Blue
Guess Boo - The Mystery of My Nan's Ashes: Lost Hippo
Nocturne Musical: One More Saga Productions
#GIRLBOSSGOD: Alison Arnopp
Custard Club: Whole Headache
Bitch on the Mic: Jess Nicks
MEAT: Elle Dillon-Reams
BEAVERHAUSEN: Veronica Von Beaverhausen
ExtraOrdinary: Diverge Theatre
Leslie Bloom Solves a Murder: Leslie Bloom
Each year, Brighton Fringe offers a series of bursaries in collaboration with various local, national and international organisations.
Bursaries ensure that those who may not normally take part in Brighton Fringe can do so. They cover the cost of event registration and often more forms of support, such as financial, mentoring or marketing.
Without further ado, please see below our Bursary winners from Brighton Fringe 2026.
We are lucky enough to offer a range of Staff Bursaries every year, covering a whole range of genres chosen by the member of staff.
Duncan's Artist of the Global Majority Bursary
Hannah's Sustainability Bursary
Elin's Bursary for Neurodiverse Artists
Sarah's Cabaret & Variety Bursary
Megan's LGBTQIA+ Comedy Bursary
Vicky's Musical Theatre Bursary
Laura's Low Income Bursary
Fringe Favourite and Spirit of the Fringe 2025 winner All That Bex offer’s their bursary to anyone considers themselves an underdog.
Kent based NPO Applause, are the lead partners for Create Tour Connect (CTC) a new innovative partnership project commissioning, developing and touring theatre and drama across the rural touring network in England.
Encore Insure offer three bursaries in Circus, Literature and Spoken word, and Theatre, reflecting their dedication to Fringe performance and the creative zeal of new makers
Ironclad Creative are a writing focused not-for-profit offer a new writing bursary specifically to support new theatre or storytelling from writers.
The fifth and final year of his comedy bursary, comedian and actor Luke Rollason has selected some lucky people to supply mentoring and crisps.
Winners
Runners Up
Funny guy and spirit of the fringe award winner 2024 kindly offers a comedy bursary supported by Laughing Horse.
For the 15th year running, The Pebble Trust is supporting Brighton Fringe artists by offering 3 bursaries to young people in or from Sussex wishing to put on an event, in any category.
South East Dance offers their bursary to professional artists whose show includes movement, dance or choreography.
Our own lovely marketing team offer their bursary for theatre shows with grand tour ambitions.
Brighton Fringe has announced that Amy Keogh will step down from her role in March 2026, concluding a period of leadership marked by recovery, stability, and renewed growth for the organisation.
During her tenure, Keogh has guided Brighton Fringe through a significant period of change, helping the festival recover and rebuild following the challenges of the Covid pandemic while remaining firmly committed to its open-access, artist-led ethos. Her leadership has focused on sustainability, opportunity, and strengthening the festival’s relationships with both its creative community and with audiences.
Among her key achievements have been the expansion of Brighton Fringe’s outdoor venue sites – such as The Revel Puck's Circus Yard in 2025 – broadening the festival’s presence across the city. Keogh also secured Arts Council England funding for The Junction – a networking event for creatives and producers as part of Brighton Fringe’s career development programme, Fringe Academy. This investment has reinforced Brighton Fringe’s role not only as a platform for performance, but as a year-round supporter of artistic development.
Responding to long-standing feedback from artists, venues, and audiences, Keogh oversaw the return of the printed Brighton Fringe brochure, restoring a valued and much-missed element of the festival experience.
Under her leadership, Brighton Fringe has achieved its highest ticket sales since 2019, signalling a recovery from the pandemic period and renewed confidence from audiences. This success has been underpinned by careful organisational work, including the restructuring of the staff team, creating a more resilient and future-focused organisation.
Speaking about her decision, Amy Keogh said:
“Leading Brighton Fringe has been an extraordinary privilege and an absolute delight, even at its toughest moment. The festival’s strength lies in its artists, venues, staff, volunteers, and audiences. As I look ahead to the next chapter, I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together and excited to see how Brighton Fringe continues to evolve.”
Amy will remain in post until March 2026 when she will start her new role as General Manager of Brighton-based community-led arts organisation SameSky. Over the next few months Amy will be working closely with the Board and team to ensure a smooth transition.
Duncan Lustig-Prean, Chair of Brighton Fringe commented:
“Amy has a wonderful way with the team, consistently demonstrating strength, energy, and generosity of spirit. She has made a significant difference to the relationships Brighton Fringe has built across the city and beyond, and her contribution to the organisation has been immense.
It has been a joy to work with Amy, and while she will be greatly missed, I wish her every success at SameSky and in all that comes next.”
Brighton Fringe have confirmed that recruitment for a new Managing Director will begin immediately with applications open from today and interviews to take place in early 2026
With hundreds of shows taking part during Fringe, we had a great selection of awards to be won! Some of these awards were voted for by audience members, others by award sponsors and local arts groups. The majority of awards were shortlisted independently by judging panels, but some were open to submissions.
The Brighton Fringe 2025 Awards Ceremony took place on Sunday 1st June at Big Puck in The Circus Yard.
All awards were judged at the discretion of the partners, and judging terms varied.
2025 Awards
It is the 1st of June — the grand finale of Fringe 2025 — and we’re gearing up to celebrate 31 unforgettable days of extraordinary performances, boundless talent, brilliant creativity, and all the weird and wonderful magic in between. This year, Brighton Fringe wrapped with over eight hundred shows and more than one thousand incredible artists. And now, the awards mark the cherry on top of the rich, riotous, and utterly delicious Fringe cake — and what a sweet celebration it has been!
We started the evening by welcoming all the fabulous guests, presenters, sponsors, nominees hosted by the amazing Revel Puck team at The Circus Yard. Everyone gathered with drinks, and kind words shared while we waited to usher everyone into Big Puck circus tent, and there was a positive buzz in the air with photos being taken and smiles all round.
While everyone found their seats and eagerly anticipated the results, we applauded our dazzling hosts for the evening, Sarah and Elin. The show began with a performance by Selena Mersey, winner of last year’s Pebble Trust Outgoing Touring Award, who performed a song from her award winning show Madonna/Whore, as well as a song written especially for the awards ceremony.
And on with the show!
The winners are as follows:
Brighton Fringe Exhibitions Award in Association with Artists Open Houses
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Judy Stevens, Festival Director
Prize: A free registration for Brighton Fringe 2026, plus a free advert in the Artists Open Houses brochure 2026
Shortlist:
Mid Street Lab Community Award
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Jean Wachter, Director of Mid Street Lab
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Shortlist:
The Newman Thomson Design & Print Award 2025
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Warrick Francis, Newman Thomson
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Shortlist:
SupaJam Education Outstanding Neurodiverse Performance Award 2025
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Abbie Hill and Lillie Watson, Supajam
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Shortlist:
The Brighton Fringe Family-Friendly Award 2025 in Association with Brighton Girls
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Rosie McColl, Head of Brighton Girls Senior School
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026, rehearsal space, marketing package from Brighton Girls
Shortlist:
Most Outstanding Dance Work
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Cath James, Artistic Director
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Shortlist:
RUNNERS UP:
PERIOD - We Period
TAP - BN1 Arts Centre
How a Spiral Works - Art for Rainy Days
The Spirit of the Fringe Award 2025 sponsored by Theatre Royal Brighton
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Sophie Denney, Theatre Director, Jackie Alexander, Senior Creative Learning Manager, Simon Miles, Customer Experience Manager
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026, Annual ATG Membership, prosecco and flowers
Nominees:
FringeReview Outstanding Theatre Award
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Sophie Methuen Turner, FringeReview
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026 and teapot!
Farnham Maltings Emerging Artist/ Company Award 2025
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Will Arnold, Producer
Prize: £1000 plus mentoring from Farnham Maltings
Shortlist:
The Pebble Trust Outgoing Touring Award
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Louise Arnell, The Pebble Trust
Prize: £3,000 to be used within 18 months to take their show to another Fringe
SoHo Playhouse International Fringe Encore Series Nomination
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Darren Lee Cole, Producing Artistic Director
Best New Show Award sponsored by No. 124 Brighton
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Josh Williams, Kimberly Butler, No. 124 Brighton
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Shortlist:
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Sarah and Elin, Brighton Fringe
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Sarah and Elin, Brighton Fringe
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Presented at the awards ceremony by: Amy Keogh, Managing Director of Brighton Fringe
Prize: Free registration to Brighton Fringe 2026
Congratulations to our award winners!
We would like to say a huge congratulations to everyone who took part in Brighton Fringe this year. We hope you are all incredibly proud of yourselves – we certainly are!
We’d like to give a special thanks to Revel Puck for hosting the awards, Danny Fitzpatrick for photographing, Serious Glass for filming, Selena Mersey and Matthew Gest’s Boogie Woogie Troupe for performing and all of you for attending! A special thank you to all our presenters and award sponsors:
Hosted by Sarah French and Elin Eaton, with thanks to the rest of the BF team.
The Brighton Fringe Team:
Chair: Duncan Lustig-Prean
Managing Director: Amy Keogh
Operations Manager: Hannah Turk
Development Manager: Vicky Hague
Artist and Venue Services: Laura Aiton, Sarah French, Megan McEvoy
Box Office: Elin Eaton, Isabella McCarthy-Sommerville, Joe McCracken, Mariana Morais
Jubilee Square Coordinator: Rosa Firbank
Marketing: Spark Arts AM&PM
Content Creator: Alice Langston
SEE YOU IN 2026!
Each year, Brighton Fringe offers a series of bursaries in collaboration with various local, national and international organisations. We also have a range of Staff Bursaries, covering a whole range of genres. Bursaries ensure that those who may not normally take part in Brighton Fringe can do so.
Bursaries cover the cost of event registration alongside a variety of other forms of support; financial, mentoring or marketing.
Please see below our Bursary winners from Brighton Fringe 2025.
Hotel Pelirocco is Brighton’s original rock and roll boutique hotel, boasting 19 themed rooms celebrating artists, musical mavericks and all things extravagant. The hotel is Brighton through and through and is delighted to be pairing up with festival favourite Brighton Fringe to offer their attendees and performers 10% rooms throughout the festival.
Please use code FRINGE-10 on www.hotelpelirocco.co.uk
Brighton Fringe is all about breaking down barriers and keeping the arts open to everyone. That’s why, once again, we’ve teamed up with local, national, and international organisations to offer a range of bursaries—giving artists from all backgrounds the chance to be part of England’s biggest open-access arts festival.
Every year, these bursaries help smash financial and logistical roadblocks, covering event registration fees as well as offering the winning artists helpful extras like financial aid, mentoring, and marketing support. The goal? To keep Brighton Fringe as daring, diverse, and inclusive as ever.
After an incredible response from a wildly talented bunch of artists and performers, we’re hyped to announce this year’s Brighton Fringe Sponsor Bursary recipients! These creative dynamos have wowed us with their vision, and we can’t wait to see them light up the festival.
All That Bex ‘Everyone Loves an Underdog’ Bursary:
Carl Carzana THE Comedian and All Aboard! An Evening with Pearl and Dean
Applause Create Tour Connect Bursary:
Tip of Your Tongue and El Viaje
Bird and Blend ComminiTEA Bursary 2025:
Hope
Bird and Blend SustainabiliTEA Bursary 2025:
The Arms
Coastal Catalyst Young Creatives Bursary:
Monotony
Andromache and Neoptolemus Lamb Collective: Zine Launch & Exhibition
Encore Insure Bursaries 2025:
Hot Flush: Brighton Fringe Edition
SPUDS: Tatties on Tour
Lose Your Own Adventure
Gold Arts Young Artist Bursary:
An Evening with Persepolis
The Luke Rollason Memorial Bursary:
Landlord's Wet Dream
Ellen Turnill Montoya is Mr Handsome
RUNNER UP: Ozzy Algar: Speed Queen
RUNNER UP: Sexy Rude Harp Concert
The Pebble Trust Young People Bursary 2025:
Sitting (In Silence)
Cowpokes in a Bunkhouse
The Space We Take
Solo Show Treasure Hunt Bursary 2025:
Everybody’s Dating Ollie
South East Dance Bursary:
Decadence, Desire, and Decapitation
Spark AM & PM Bursary for Theatre 2025:
Puck: A Fairy's Tale
Spirit of The Fringe Bursary for Comedy 2025:
Ariel Hebditch: Skeleton Out Of the Closet
England’s biggest arts festival is back for 2025. From 2 May to 1 June, audiences can enjoy 900 shows across 140 venues – with a total of over 4,000 individual performances!
The festival’s annual launch event on Wednesday 12 March saw a gathering of Fringe friends and fans enjoying weird and wonderful performances from singers, actors, comedians and two human-sized potatoes…
Each of the featured acts is a winner of one of Brighton Fringe’s artist bursaries, awarded each year in collaboration with various local, national and international organisations. Bursaries cover the cost of event registration alongside a variety of other forms of support; financial, mentoring or marketing.
The event’s line up included absurdist play Cowpokes in a Bunkhouse (winners of the The Pebble Trust Young People Bursary); the anarchic SPUDS: Tatties on Tour (winners of the Encore Insure Bursaries); All Aboard! An Evening with Pearl and Dean – the world’s campest cruise ship singers (winners of the All That Bex ‘Everyone Loves an Underdog’ Bursary); the horror-romance-comedy Tip of Your Tongue (winner of the Applause Create Tour Connect Bursary); the surreal Ellen Turnill Montoya is Mr Handsome (winner of the Luke Rollason Memorial Bursary); and black-and-white era movie icons Glenda & Rita: Live (winners of the staff Musical Theatre Bursary).
The Fringe’s leadership team, Chair of the Board, Duncan Lustig-Prean, and Managing Director, Amy Keogh, announced the return of the much-missed Brighton Fringe brochure, last seen at the 2019 festival.
They also shared the news that for the first time, Brighton Fringe will receive funding from Arts Council England to support the Fringe Academy – a series of workshops and talks to help emerging artists and producers to develop their careers by providing free skills-based training, advice and support. The first Fringe Academy event will be a networking day, The Junction, on Sat 10th May, featuring a panel of experts from festivals around the UK discussing collaboration, connections and partnerships.
Tickets for the acts who performed on the night – plus many, many more amazing shows and events – are available to book now from brightonfringe.org or 01273 917 272.
After a successful launch last year, Brighton Fringe's Made In Sussex season returns as part of the 20th Anniversary Festival in 2025!
The season aims to highlight local acts from the Sussex area, culminating in a pre-Fringe showcase for the performers to showcase snippets of their events in the run up to the festival, as well as a free registration fee for their event.
We had a large volume of applicants this year and the Brighton Fringe team has selected 5 outstanding events to take part in this years season. The line-up is included below with further information about each event.
Come and celebrate local talent by attending the Made In Sussex showcase at Daltons on the 23rd April! You can get tickets for the showcase here and you can find links to book tickets for each event below.
Anna’s brain is a bum - come see all the nice things that come out of it.
British Comedy Guide winner and award nominated pantomime cow Anna Soden's madcap hour full of songs, revenge and talking out your ass.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to be included in the programme. As a Brighton based artists it's amazing to have the support of Brighton Fringe. I can't wait to share my silly show with the best city in the world!"
This event will be taking place at the Caxton Arms, 2-3 May at 9.15pm
More Information / Event Tickets
Chuck the sudoku and the gender binary aside and join award-winning drag-king Dad for a queer reparenting extravaganza, fusing clown, drag and cabaret. Through the lens of toast, cycling jokes and Radio 4, Dad Jokes takes you on a coming-of-middle-age story about one regular dad's attempt to understand his queer child. Expect lectures in lesbianism, hymns on housework and a much needed visit from Mummy.
"I'm so grateful to have been selected for the Made in Sussex season, it feels harder than ever out there for artists but this makes it possible!"
This event will be taking place at Rotunda Theatre Brighton: Pip on the 20 - 22 May at 7pm
More Information / Event Tickets
Thirty years ago, childhood friends Rod and Iris played an ill-fated gig at their school science fair. Today their band is reuniting for a one-off anniversary extravaganza. Will their experiment succeed, or will uncontrolled variables force them to abandon their hypothesis? A musical comedy about light, science and friendship for all ages, particularly aimed at 11-14 year olds.
"I absolutely love Brighton Fringe, and have premiered about ten of my shows here over the years. I'm so lucky to have one of the world's best fringe festivals right on my doorstep. To be honoured with inclusion in this showcase for local work, especially when so many wonderful creative minds live in and around Brighton, is just brilliant." (John Hinton, co-writer and co-performer of 'Light Fantastic!')
This event will be taking place at Komedia Studio, 10, 24 and 25 May at 2pm
More Information / Event Tickets
Gemma and Jane couldn’t be closer, the type of friendship that could survive through anything, I mean anything. This absurd piece of dark comedy will take you on an unexpected journey through the lives of two twenty-somethings trying to sort their sh*t out. All starting at a taxi rank. Think Waiting for Godot meets Fleabag.
"Being included in the Made in Sussex programme is such an honour for RANK. The creator of the show Goldie was born and raised in Brighton, and Paige, her co-star, relocated to Brighton a few years ago and hasn't looked back since! We are so delighted to be part of a programme that supports and recognises talent within Sussex, and feel privileged to be chosen out of so many incredible performers and events."
This event will be taking place at Ironworks Studios (Studio C) on the 8 May at 7pm
More Information / Event Tickets
The Hercules story Disney didn't have the guts to tell! Placed under a curse by Hera, queen of the gods, the hero Hercules must perform twelve impossible tasks to gain his freedom. Master storyteller Joshua Crisp brings his dynamic storytelling style and gallery of impressions to create the entire cast of this epic myth himself, filled with unbelievable monsters, superhuman feats, and enough property destruction to rival a Michael Bay movie.
"I was born in Sussex. For many years I have walked her chalky downs, trod the boards of her many theatres. But Sussex has never before asked me to defend it, asked me to put my talents, my reputation and my stout Yeomanly physique on the line to uphold the honour of Sussex against those rascals from Kent. Now is that time, and I will answer the call proudly. Every other show - beware."
This event will take place at Lionhouse on the 16 - 18 May at 7pm
Talking to the Box Office...
