The annual celebration of digital culture that is Brighton Digital Festival celebrates its 10th birthday in 2021. And after a one-year pandemic-related hiatus will be relaunching with a 10-day programme (29 Oct– 7 Nov) exploring the creative possibilities of digital, hosted by Lighthouse.

Preparation for Brighton Digital Festival 2021 kicks off with a Town Hall Meeting on Zoom on Wednesday 28 July from 6.30pm.

This event is FREE and open for all to attend .

Agenda

• 6.20pm Zoom opens
• 6.30pm Start
• Welcome from Lighthouse
• Introduction to the festival from Amy Osborne, BDF Producer
• Presentations from guests involved in the festival:
• Sam Lindley / Frequency Festival / Digital Democracies
• ABCD Cultural Recovery
• QM Records / Moves Festival
• Luciana Haill / Pioneer
• Helen Kennedy / Digital Economy Network

-- BREAK --

• 7.40pm: next steps and contacts
• 7.50pm: Q&A
• 8pm END

Giving event organisers a chance to present their plans, whether the event is fully fledged or just the seed of an idea, the BDF21 Town Hall Meeting is an opportunity to meet others, connect and collaborate. Anyone wanting to organise an event, volunteer, find out about sponsorship opportunities, venue availablity or just find out more about the Festival in general, is encouraged to attend and contribute to this open forum. Come along and connect and collaborate with others in the BDF Community!

Over the past decade, Brighton Digital Festival has transformed from a handful of events developed by Lighthouse and digital agency Clearleft, bringing together the arts and creative industries in the city; to being managed by Wired Sussex; before becoming a Community Interest Company run by the community for the community.

Now the festival is being reshaped as a season of commissioned and community-run events for 2021 led by Lighthouse, with Wired Sussex programming and managing the festival’s flagship conference exploring the frontiers of digital culture, The Messy Edge. Brighton Digital Festival will continue to be supported by Brighton-based digital consumer intelligence platform Brandwatch. Brandwatch has been a key sponsor in the festival’s history supporting more than 30 commissions and projects through the years.

Throughout its 10-year history, the festival has presented a crowd-sourced, open-programme. This means that anyone can independently organise an event, submit it to the festival programme, and present it under the festival banner.

Excitingly, this events programme will be complemented by a collaboration with Hull’s ​Freedom Festival​ and Lincoln’s ​Frequency Festival​ on a new national Arts Council funded project led by Threshold Studios, soon to be announced.

Alli Beddoes, Artistic Director and CEO of Lighthouse says: “The experience of lockdown has really driven home the role digital technology plays in connecting people to culture - whether it’s attending virtual performances, visiting digital galleries or taking part in Zoom pub quizzes.

“Now, more than ever, we need to make sure everybody has equal access to the production, consumption and understanding of digital culture. It’s that vision that’s at the heart of everything we do at Lighthouse and we are looking forward to taking Brighton Digital Festival into its next decade to play an active, ambitious, accessible role in shaping our city’s collective digital creative future.”