Brighton Festival: why unveiling the line-up was such a wonderful feeling

But in a way, that makes the unveiling of this year’s festival programme all the sweeter.

“The whole experience has certainly tested and strengthened our collective resilience, and I certainly do think that we have to be wary about complacency in the future,” Andrew said.

“All of us in society have a long way to go before we fully come out the other side of all this.

“But collectively this festival has survived an enormous ordeal and it is wonderful to be in this position at the moment.”

Curated under the theme of care by guest director Lemn Sissay the festival will offer more than 90 events – outdoors and online from May 1 and then safely back on stage from May 17 to 31.

Andrew is thrilled with the programme which has come together under the toughest of circumstances.

Brighton Festival 2021 will feature ten world and UK premieres and commissions; new work by the actress Jane Horrocks; theatre directors Neil Bartlett, Tim Crouch and Peter Sellars; performances from classical artists Roderick Williams, Paul Lewis, Jessie Montgomery and Isata Kanneh-Mason; musicians Le Gateau Chocolat, Eliza Carthy and Gwenno; visual artist Olafur Eliasson; comedians Josie Long and Mark Watson; and author Jacqueline Wilson and poet Michael Rosen.

The fact that it is happening at all comes down to some of the tough decisions Andrew and the festival team took last year – not least the realisation that restrictions would still be in place even if festival 2021 was able to happen. It proved exactly the right decision to make.

“This past year has been so hard for so many, many people that it is hard really just to give an impression of it. It has been very difficult for this organisation, but it has also been a time when we have had enormous support, amazingly both funding support and also moral support from our audiences, from donors, from funders, just an incredible sense of valuing the whole organisation and particularly the festival, this great sense that everyone was wanting us to survive.

“In the very initial stages we knew that without significant investment, which we subsequently saw, that all arts organisations were under threat.

“From the moment we closed the Dome on March 17 and cancelled the festival on March 18, 67 per cent of our income disappeared – a huge part of our income that we would normally get from all our ticketing. It was all very stark in those very early days. But we were determined to find a way through, and we took some very early decisions that have stood us in very good stead.

“All our staff came together and said they would rather negotiate terms and conditions across the year than see any colleagues made redundant. It was an amazing solidarity from the staff that we saw.

“We also took the decision to think that the virus and social distancing and the impact of it all would be with us far longer than was initially thought. We developed a plan that was going to sustain us for 18 months of closure in effect if need be… a plan that meant we should be able to survive.”

And it is this plan which has fed into this year’s festival. The restrictions have been built into it right from the outset: “When we started to plan, we planned for the restrictions still to be with us, which they are.

“I think we have all had to become accustomed to making tough decisions. We have just had to live with the uncertainty. That’s a muscle that we have had to practise.

“But straight away we cancelled the festival last year we spoke to Lemn and asked would he be our guest director for 2021, and he immediately said yes, not having been able to realise the festival he had planned last year. And that immediately gave us a brilliant platform to start thinking about the festival.

“We were also thinking wouldn’t it be wonderful if a large number of artists that were going to be coming last year should come back for this year’s festival in 2021, and that’s what is happening.”

But clearly times had changed.

“We didn’t want to just lift the festival we would have had in 2020 and plonk it into 2021. There were all sorts of reasons why that would not have been feasible or desirable.