Saturday 1 May 2010

Brighton: from pier to modernity

Most people who come to Brighton for the weekend are after a cheap hotel, an even cheaper bar and a quick shag (preferably at no cost at all).  And off they go, leaving behind them a bucketful of culture, untouched by stag party-goers and their conquests.


Take this weekend, for example.  You've quite wisely missed the Children's Parade, though its fucking whistles and drums woke me up at 11.00 this morning.  There's the Brian Eno-supervised Brighton Festival, including his own 77 Million Paintings at Fabrica (a former church), open until 11.00 tonight; alongside this, the Brighton Fringe Festival with free and paid-for events, all over the city and beyond. 

Tomorrow Stonewall holds its Equality Walk, starting with a picnic and "entertainment" in the Pavilion Gardens and while you're there you could check out the From Sickert to Gertler exhibition at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery or the new permanent exhibition at the Pavilion itself, The Royal Pavilion as an Indian hospital, as explained quite nicely by Maev Kennedy in the Guardian.  

I highly recommend rounding off the weekend in stitches with the Ladyboys of Bankok's new show, Fantasy and Feathers, in a tent off Old Steine, followed by dinner at Hotel du Vin, taking advantage of their offer of a room on Sunday night for twenty-five quid. 

And all this on my doorstep!  Really, I spoil myself.

Brian Eno is interviewed by the Guardian here.
Royal Pavilion buys George IV cartoons - BBC News here.