Brighton Italian Festival Street Party

The Brighton Italian Festival returns for its third edition from 11 to 18 October, with the whole thing kicking off at Jubilee Square on Sunday 11 October. It's a week-long run that spreads across the city, so you can pick and choose what to drop into rather than trying to do it all in one go.

The opening day is the Street Party in Jubilee Square, which runs from 10am to 9pm. It's the biggest single event of the week: live music, comedy, family entertainment and an outdoor market, with the smell of freshly cooked pasta, artisan street food and authentic gelato alongside Italian wine and a live stage. Entry is free, so you don't need a ticket to wander in.

From there, the festival moves into a few distinct nights. On Thursday 15 October, Hotel Pelirocco hosts the Spaghetti Disco, an evening of Italo disco, funk and electronic music that serves up the festival's signature midnight spaghetti — the late-night pasta has become a bit of a hallmark of the event. Saturday 17 October brings Opera Viva, a semi-immersive operatic performance led by Simon Gray at Horatio's Bar on Brighton Palace Pier. And on Sunday 18 October, artist Daniele Marzeddu presents Films of Sicily and Sardinia - in the footsteps of D.H. Lawrence, a multimedia performance at Loreto Bar.

Between those, the week fills out with Italian cooking workshops, cultural talks, live music and community pop-ups scattered across town. The festival is founded and directed by William Ranieri, who describes it as a hub that blends Italian tradition with contemporary culture, building bridges between Italian and British culture and bringing together Italian and Italophile communities. This is the third edition, and it's barely a year old, following a May festival that drew more than 1,000 people. The Street Party turns Jubilee Square into a vibrant Italian piazza for the day, and the rest of the week carries that energy into the workshops, talks and performances across Brighton.