Feature review: The early May bank holiday in sunny Brighton

Frank Wainwright travelled to Brighton. Brighton doesn’t have a cathedral so it is not a part of Frank’s Big Tour of England route, so we’re not going to the city this summer. Brighton has a huge role to play in the brand experience sector, so getting there ahead of the tour was a must. Frank went to 3 events in the one early May weekend, Spiegeltent, Run to the Sea and the Brighton Foodie Festival

Spiegeltent

Meeting the managing director of Laine within moments of the start of this season’s Spiegeltent was great to witness. Sponsoring the May 2nd-June 3^rd Spiegeltent maybe as natural to Laine as breathing, but the moments before it must also be fraught with the attention and excitement that comes with the brand’s passion.

My view: Laine is a brand that really knows itself and has a fanbase to match. The pub chain and brewery’s growth is keenly allied to a burlesque embrace of the extraordinary. Spiegeltent – in spite of being a sponsorship rather than a brand-owned event is one of the most seamless event-brand connected experiences you are likely to encounter.

So,  Spiegeltent – hosted right in the thriving hub of Brighton at Old Steine Park, near the pier, borrows its history from exotic tents of mirrors of German and Flemish performance art. The event – enabled by Brighton Council’s Open Spaces – offers visitors a  deeply immersive heady smooch, with outlandish colours and entertainers who definitely love night more than day, delivering a whirling blend from ingredients that include circus, dance, jokes, innuendo and mystique. Laine’s brews, beers with distinctive flavours including hops, fruit and sours, feel as if they had been specifically tailored to this vibrant night out.  

Taking a tour with MD Russell Danks, who was introduced to me as Russ, I understood that I was in the company of someone who could flick a switch between the big picture: “at Laine we love to embrace the extraordinary” and the small stuff, quickly checking in on the set up of the bar or making sure his guests received a product sample on the fly.

In one bar there is a giant red pussy. It’s the sort of display that Laine just owns – it hasn’t been made specifically for Spiegeltent – and Russ declares “We’ll sell 10,000 beers in the Pussy Bar tonight.”

Laine has been in the vanguard of reinventing pub-going for a new type of pub-goer. He describes the brand’s success with Gen Z. He says that beer drinking isn’t off the menu for Gen Z, it is old school beer nights out that are not reaching them. In essence if beer is paired with the right going out occasion, then it is still a popular drink. Standing in Spiegeltent it was easy to understand this.   Laine’s beers are designed to meet individual taste expectations – definitely flavours to savour. Amongst our visitor group Russ is keen to check our unique reactions and preferences. I had the feeling that if sight, smell, sound, taste and touch would be switched on in the Spiegeltent that evening, then a cold Laine would be a welcome part of that multisensory engagement.

Whilst bawdy and bright human engagement was going to make for a full-on experience later that evening, I was keen to see how experiential technology was being deployed to add a further layer to the event’s ability to tell evocative stories – and to create a family entertainment piece at Spiegeltent.

Pixel Artwork’s immersive art experience, The Butterfly Trail is a 3D mixed reality artwork that guides visitors through the intrepid explorer Professor Peter Pelegrin’s Glass House. It had previously been on show at London’s Outernet, back in September. At Spiegeltent it was housed in a more intimate domed tent. I was guided through the experience by executive producer Dasha Legge.

The show offers up a dazzling array of butterflies that brings to mind stargazing, and jewellery as a fantasia of nature at its most provocative. At some points it also reminded me of the 2021 Green Planet Experience which offered up the BBC team’s natural world storytelling and a David Attenborough commentary. Bringing that immense experience to mind is a comparison that is definitely a positive. Both The Green Planet and The Butterfly Trail feature a moment where you can put your hand out for a butterfly to alight on. Discussing this with the Pixel Artworks team proved an interesting line of chat as one major difference in this experience was the use of Web AR. The Butterfly Trail was an experience that worked through any visitor’s smartphone, there was no need to lend hardware to people as they came in.  It was a great proof of concept that shows that real-time AR experiences can be reliably delivered in any space with a good enough wifi or data signal.

From a creative perspective I found many favourable reviews online of this experience, both at Outernet and Spiegeltent. Here’s a quote from one from Scene of the Brighton event that I feel rings shows that The Butterfly successfully met its hopes and expectations.

“For the little ones, the AR insects are nothing short of mesmerizing. Watching their eyes light up as they interact with the virtual butterflies is a delightful sight. The technology is cleverly integrated, transforming the space into a living, breathing meadow where children can engage with the fluttering projections as if they were real.

However, the real highlight for the adults lies in a different kind of metamorphosis. Nestled on giant beanbags, we can lay back and simply gaze up at the elegant projections that dance across the ceiling. B.L.I.S.S. It’s a rare chance to relax and let go, allowing the serene beauty of the visual spectacle to wash over us. In this tranquil cocoon, the stress of the outside world melts away, making it a perfect interlude in a busy festival schedule.”

Run To The Sea

After the burlesque pussy bar and the beautiful butterflies, my next Brighton Open Spaces assignment started early the following day with a 50K trail run from Horsham in Sussex to Hove Lawns on the Brighton Seafront.

This event is billed as an excellent 1^st ultramarathon and if achievable equates to excellent then it is certainly that, The organisation of the event by Ultraviolet Run is superb with clear advice, helpful buses, easy parking, a clearly marked route with GPX back up and a big welcome at the finish.

Both my training buddy Liliana and I ran it, and whilst we are both experienced, we found the route itself was a builder, with a fairly indifferent front few miles blossoming into some spectacular climbs over the South Downs before the end. And the all-important finish proved that Hove Lawns is a great destination for creating a holiday atmosphere. This rentable outdoor space turned the ultramarathon into something of a pilgrimage to the sea and we finished close enough to the city centre of Brighton to make us feel ready for more of the entertainment this city has to offer.

Hove Lawns is the site of some of Brighton’s famous beach huts, so you do feel like you have properly arrived at the English seaside, redolent with the memories of bathing Victorians, and southbound steam train holidays to take the air.

The Foodie Festival

After Run to the Sea we were in quite a hurry with an appointment to meet Toby Havord, Outdoor Events Development Officer for Brighton Council to meet at Preston Park as the busy Foodie Festival transitioned from afternoon to evening schedules.

The Festival saw a mix of food and drink demos and experience and a music stage that would feature Scouting for Girls that evening.

The Festival itself was an object lesson in keeping it simple. Attendees were promised cookalongs, and they delivered these to packed marquees with some decent brands taking part. I enjoyed an Indian chef Rishi Anand, from Brighton café Dishoom Permit Room, take on cooking with oil from La Espaniola.

That said the full-to-bursting entertainment proved to be British humour at its most seaside postcard as everyone piled in to watch some foolhardy contests in an eye-watering chilli eating contest.

I toured quite a few of the stalls. Of the brand teams in actions my two personal winners were both apple related with Brothers cider having a great communicator and Jazz Apples cutting through some of the melee with skilled brand ambassadors. After all who sets off to a Foodie Festival with trying a slice of apple high on their wishlist?

The Foodie Festival is a summerlong national roadshow. It crops up everywhere. But Brighton was chosen for the curtain raiser.

Although many of the brands simply tour with the Festival, Toby Havord had made sure that local produce from Brighton and from Sussex was given the chance to shine.

And shine they did, with Brighton living up to its sunny reputation. Earlier this year, writing in the Independent, travel journalist Simon Calder revealed Brighton to be Britain’s sunniest city – by a distance, with 5 hours sunshine per day, a full 15 minutes more than its nearest rival, Plymouth.

So, if you have plans for an outdoor promotion in a city that is weather reliant, Brighton is your safest bet.