Decision - Outdoor Events Programme 2026

Brighton and Hove Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism Decided 3 Mar 2026 approved GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism

Report author

—

Published

4 Mar 2026

Reference

7586

As published

the council's own words, unedited

This report outlines the details of the 2026 season and the actions currently being taken by the Outdoor Events Team to make year on year improvements to the approach

That the Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism: 1) Support the strategic policy approach taken to make Brighton & Hove a vibrant city and a city to be proud of in its delivery of the open spaces events programme for 2026 (Apx n1) in line with the current Outdoor Events Strategy (Apx n2) 2) Delegates authority to the Corporate Director, City Operations, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Culture Heritage and Tourism, to grant landlords consent to each individual event in accordance with the annual programme, subject to granting of any other necessary permissions. 3) Delegates authority to the Corporate Director, City Operations, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism, to make any alterations to the published events programme as necessary, including approving new applications in accordance with the Outdoor Events Strategy and cancelling events if required.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 10856/1600 tokens · 13870ms · parsed 8 Sep 2026 11:35

Everything below was read out of a PDF by a model It is useful and it is not authoritative. The document it came from is linked in the rail, and where the two disagree the document is right.

The strategy sets out how Brighton & Hove can use outdoor events to support tourism, economic growth, community wellbeing and the city’s reputation through 2024. It recommends focusing limited council resources on fewer, higher-quality and more distinctive events, while improving support for organisers, introducing an Outdoor Events Charter and developing event-ready infrastructure.

Recommendation

Adopt a four-part approach: focus strategically on events with the greatest impact; create an Outdoor Events Charter for the council and organisers; build capacity in the events sector through improved applications, partnerships, programme development and fee reviews; and ensure major public-space developments include infrastructure suitable for outdoor events.

Financial impact

The strategy records current event hire-charge income of £180,585, generated from 246 council-licensed or directly organised events and used to fund the events programme. It also recommends ongoing reviews of event fees and charges.

Ward affected

city-wide

Stakeholders named

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Brighton & Hove residentsVisitors and touristsEvent organisers and promotersLocal businessesIndependent producers and venuesCommunity and charity event organisersCity Council departmentsSafety Advisory Group representativesPoliceTourism and hospitality businesses

Next steps

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Develop and implement an Outdoor Events Charter.
Explore digital tools to streamline event applications and management.
Apply clear criteria when developing the events programme and identifying headline events.
Engage event organisers, promoters, producers and venues in capacity building and collaborative planning.
Review event hire charges and fees annually.
Consider event infrastructure needs in the planning of major public and private developments.
Develop a stronger winter events programme and consider packaging it under a Winter Festival brand.

Precedents

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"Decided elsewhere" is not built Finding the same decision in other councils needs semantic matching over decision text, which is part of the search rewrite. Until then, the council's own decisions list is the way through.