Interview: Kate Tempest

The Brighton Festival Guest Director on the events she’s most excited about, her relationship with the city & how energy can spill out on to the street

What have been your aims as Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2017?
The reason that I thought that this would be an amazing thing to do is because of having an opportunity to think about the artists that I love, the work that I love, the stuff that I love to go to, and to try to broaden the scope a little bit of how other people receive and have access to these artworks. I was extremely humbled to be asked to follow in the footsteps of such great artists that have come before: Laurie Anderson last year, Aung San Suu Kyi, Brian Eno.

What are some of the things that most excite you in this year’s programme?
There’s a site-specific piece of theatre, by this incredible duo from Australia, it’s called Five Short Blasts: Shoreham. Five short blasts is the signal that you give when you are in a sea-way, that means ‘I’m confused about your intention and I’m nervous that we are going to collide’. So, this is the premise of this sound art piece that involves the industrial boat sea-way.
Also, there’s a real emphasis on lyricism which is something that is really close to my heart. We’ve got a load of poets that we’ve programmed and storytellers and lyricists from across the board. There’s a guy called Daniel Morden, who’s from Wales and he’s a storyteller – he knows the whole Odyssey back to front in his head, and he can tell it to you while you’re sitting there and it will feel like a blockbuster movie.

There’s a rapper called Ocean Wisdom and a rapper called Jam Baxter and a group called Four Owls who are going to do an event as a part of a High Focus showcase. I’m really excited about Yussef Kamaal, Yussef Dayes is a drummer that I’ve known since I was very young and I’m really excited to see him – he’s got this duo, they are doing a Lunchtime concert. Gary Younge’s doing a talk, that’s going to be really good. There’s Depart, a circus in a cemetery that’s going to be very good. So many things!

I have the opportunity to broaden the scope a bit of how people receive and have access to these artworks

What new elements have you brought to Brighton Festival this year?
We’ve got this really cool initiative called Your Place – which is probably the thing I’m most excited about. We have developed these two community hubs, one in Whitehawk, one in Hangleton, in community centres there and we’ll be programming events that are free – completely free – going on for two weekends across the Festival.

That will be performances from Brighton Festival artists, also participatory events and workshops. Everything completely free, programmed in conjunction and consultation with people that run some of the community programmes out of those community centres.

I thought it was important that as well as having this very exciting, cosmopolitan festival happening in the city centre, with all this buzz and hype and all this energy that gets built up from people seeing something spilling out on to the street, I wanted it to also reflect the wider population of Brighton who maybe can’t afford to get in to the city centre. I wanted to bring a bit of what was happening in the Brighton Festival out to a bit more of Brighton.

In terms of that, there is this Pay It Forward element where if you feel inclined and can afford it you can put a fiver down and Brighton Festival will match that fiver and then you can create a £10 ticket for someone who can’t afford a £10 ticket.

After something amazing like the opening Children’s Parade where all the school kids in Brighton parade through the streets – Pay-it-Forward feels like a useful way of activating some of the feelings that get brought up when you are watching a piece of work together – about community and feeling a part of something. It feels like an active way that people can help make the Festival a bit more open and create space for more people to come and check out some of these amazing artists.

What’s been your relationship to the city and the Festival to date?
I’ve had a relationship with this place all my life. There was always someone from my family that lived here or close to here. As I’ve grown older, getting to play in Brighton Festival was an amazing feeling because Brighton has this reputation as a very open and free thinking town.

As a queer woman coming here, the relief that I feel when I step off the train is palpable. Honestly I can’t explain the feeling that it gives me, it makes me feel really welcome and safe. So, the idea of a liberal town is one thing but actually for me personally to get off the train and walk about and to be like: ‘Wow this is ok, I’m ok here, I’m welcome here you know?’ That is a really important thing.”

Brighton Festival takes place from 6-28 May 2017.
Visit brightonfestival.org for information.