Brighton Early Music Festival

The annual Festival takes place in October and has built a reputation for lively and inspired programming, often exploring connections with different art forms and using performance formats and spaces that challenge preconceptions of early music.

Every year BREMF programmes around specific themes designed to stimulate new attitudes to approaching and presenting music from the past. Each Festival usually consists of around 20 events, grouped around three weekends, with pre-festival events during September and early October offering opportunities to participate in workshops, find out more about programmes, and experience the Festival for the first time.

The theme for 2026 is ‘Bringers of Dreams’ and the Festival dates will be 9-25 October 2026. The boundaries between real and imagined, between past and future, between aspiration and fear become blurred when we dream. For centuries, this nebulous tideland of imagination has fuelled ideas for countless pieces of art and music, new inventions, alternative fantastical universes, and provided the backdrop for idealised worlds of change. The properties of dreams have long been a source of wonder and many cultures have gods and goddesses of dreamworlds. The Celtic goddess Caer Ibormeith, and the Greek Oneiroi are ‘bringers’ of dreams and nightmares.

Throughout the year, BREMF contributes to the vibrant arts scene in Brighton and Hove through its programme of choral concerts, workshops and school projects.