Brainchild set out to connect people in a way that larger festivals can’t, nurturing collaboration on a personal level. We started planning the first festival in January 2012, when, amidst endless arts cuts, we wanted to show each other that realising our creative ambitions was still possible.

Now, against a lot of odds, and through the continued enthusiasm, generosity, hard-work and talents of hundreds of people, the festival has now happened six times from 2012-2018. Whilst prioritising affordability in our ticket-price, we have remained entirely sponsor-free in this time and the team has been made up entirely of volunteers, with our 2019 festival as our first time being paid.

We do not focus on any specific genre or art-form. Our focus is on the spirit behind them, and bringing together people who share an open-mindedness and a collaborative approach. We look for work that challenges broken paradigms and shares visions for more sustainable and compassionate societies globally.

Our aim is for everyone who is part of Brainchild to come away feeling inspired, having made new friends, discovered amazing new work and developed their own creativity. So all over site, there are opportunities to perform and get involved.

We’re running in the fields and woods of Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum in East Sussex. There is even a mini railway to take you on a tour round the site!

Our site address:
Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum,
Bentley, Halland,
East Sussex,
BN8 5AF

Getting here by train: Nearest stations are Uckfield and Lewes. Uckfield is closer to site than Lewes, although both stations are the same distance from London (roughly 70 minutes). Brighton to Lewes is 15 minutes.

There will be a minibus service from Uckfield and Lewes train stations, meeting the trains as they arrive. Tickets for these will be put on sale in June. Please note that minibuses tickets the Monday morning are sold on a first come first serve basis.

We always encourage festival-goers to reduce their carbon footprint, so if you want to make some new friends then lift-sharing your way to the festival may be a good idea. After the success of last year’s, we’ve made another Lift-Sharing Group, join it here.

We cannot issue refunds unless we are cancelling the festival. What we can do is swap the name on your ticket for a small fee of £2.99 – so if you sell your ticket onto somebody else, please buy an admin fee through the ticket link and then email their full name, email address to tickets@brainchildfestival.co.uk. Please note that the deadline for name swaps is 5pm on the 7th July 2019.

The festival site is intimate, split between one main field, one camping field and some adjoining woodland. There will be many art-installations and architectural pieces, as well as our six different performance areas.

There’s the Brainstage for live music, The Shack for dance music, The Forum for spoken word, talks, theatre and workshops, The Den for skill-sharing sessions, screenings and multi-media shows, and our new bar space the Kite Bar for live music and collaborations with organisations and collectives we love.

We’ve got a big campsite spreading over 2 fields adjoining the main festival area, so none of the hours of walking that you have to do at big festivals! Everybody camps together, there’s no VIP camping. All you need to do is bring your tent. Please bear in mind we can’t have campervans or campfires at the festival.

Essentials: your ticket and some valid ID. Brainchild is an 18+ festival and you will need this and your ticket to get your wristband and gain entry.

Please do bring: things that will help you gain from the festival, so notebooks, yoga mats, cameras, instruments for the jams…

Please don’t bring any glass, fireworks or illegal substances. We have a zero tolerance approach to illegal drugs and psychoactive substances. Alcohol: Per person, alcohol is limited to either: a 70cl bottle of spirits OR one crate of beer/cider/ale (12 cans) OR 1.5L of wine. Alcohol can only be brought in on first entry and must be decanted out of glass receptacles into plastic.

Sadly not. Brainchild is an 18+ festival, so we can’t allow kids on site.

Please get in touch with us about any requirements that you have and we can arrange priority parking spaces, camping and stage seating. We can provide free tickets for carers.

Gates open at 12:00 on Friday 12th July, with acts beginning shortly afterwards – the sooner you can get on site the better!

Details of main-gate opening hours during the festival will be published on here nearer the time.

All guests need to have vacated the site by noon on Monday 15th July.