A venue which has pitched up in Brighton as part of the fringe festival for five years says it has been banned with no explanation – and believes the festival is now more interested in beer gardens than theatres.
The Rotunda’s three blue geodesic domes have been a feature in Regency Square each May since 2022 – but it won’t be returning next year, and its production company Grist to the Mill says all the shows it wants to put on in alternative venues have also been rejected.
Founder Ross Ericson says he believes the real reason is because the fringe is now more interested in running beer gardens than theatres.
Brighton Fringe put a statement on its website on Monday saying Rotunda was not part of next year’s Fringe – and updated the statement yesterday saying it would only accredit venues which uphold its “high standards of safety, care, and respect”.
It also said it had told Rotunda last month it would not be invited back, and the “clear strategic reasons behind that decision”.
Rotunda has shown Brighton and Hove News the email it received from the fringe’s executive director Jonathan Maydew last month, which says: “Since taking over in May, I have been working extensively with the board and staff to refresh our strategic direction, central to which is a new agreement with the council to drive collaborative cultural and community goals within the city.
“As part of our new curation strategy for 2027 and beyond, and following a comprehensive evaluation of our site allocations with the council, we will not be inviting Rotunda Theatre to return to Brighton Fringe in the future.”
Rotunda’s founder Ross Ericson said Brighton Fringe accounted for about a third of its annual income. He said: “Grist has simply been ghosted by the festival it has supported for the last five years.
“The only theory we have is that Brighton Fringe has always wanted to monopolise all the outside spaces in Brighton during May, so maybe they have a richer sponsor they want to put on the Regency Square site.
“Whatever the reason the Fringe seems to have given little or no consideration to the impact of the loss of business on The Rotunda, or its absence to all those small independent theatre companies and performers that seek them out every year.
“Maybe this does not concern Brighton Fringe who, after all, have always seemed more interested in supporting the venues with much larger spaces – the ones that are more of a beer garden than a theatre.
“So much for an open access arts festival that boasts they are ‘a festival by anyone’.”
Mr Ericson said in the five years they’ve been in Regency Square, they’ve only had a handful of minor complaints, including from someone angry his child wasn’t put in a bubble during a circus performance, writing on a poster and not answering emails quickly enough.
He said the company was also currently in dispute with a separate company over damage allegedly caused to Rotunda’s projection screen – but that this was unlikely to be behind the Fringe’s decision.
I’ve seen some great shows in those tents, one of them was the best sketch duo I’ve ever seen. This is a shame and a loss for the Fringe.
Huge shame, I had a great time performing my shows there in 2025!
I note this coincides with an agreement struck between the Brighton Fringe and Unity. Was this a condition of the agreement? It is difficult not to speculate when the fringe exhibit a complete lack of tranparency over the decision and instead provide the most vague explanation, crammed with ‘David Brent’ type management talk.
The organisers of Brighton Fringe could put this to bed very simply by expressing what the “clear strategic decisions” were. If Grist to the Mill were withholding this information, Brighton Fringe would have likely said so. Omissions like these are suspicious, and potentially quite damaging to Brighton Fringe future prospects.
Personally, I don’t think that the Fringe and the wider Festival should be an annual event. Making it at least biennial could increase interest, give time for smoother preparations, allow the areas used time to recover and reduce pressure on the public purse.l