What is B.fest I hear you ask? Is it what a time-starved cityboy calls the first meal of the day? A tonic wine made by Scottish monks? No! It is, of course, Brighton Youth Festival, an annual youth arts festival with the aim of making arts and culture more accessible to young people.

B.fest 2024 runs from Saturday 26th October to 2nd November in their temporary Gloucester Road site. They are currently in the process of renovating their home on Edward Street and hope to be back there permanently for next year’s festival.

A big group of us made the short jog over to Gloucester Road (plus Ben who decided to make a tour of it and first jog to the old B.fest site!) to help with putting the finishing touches to the venue ahead of the festival. Upon arrival we were directed to the top floor into a big space that is going to be used as a gallery to display all the art on show. The space had already been prepped with wooden ledges all the way around to put the pictures on. Our task was to paint the walls and ledges brilliant white.

In order to preserve our spotless running gear (only the finest for Goodgymmers) we were provided with overalls, shoe covers and gloves. After laying dust sheets and strategically placing masking tape, Sarah expertly removed some pesky screws and then half of the team took paint brushes to paint the wooden ledges while the other half big rollers to do the 2 walls. While that was happening Stefania and Liam went downstairs to help Darryl dismantle a scaffold tower he had used to create a spray-paint mural on one of the outside walls.

We made short work of the walls along with a few extra boards that needed painting for the display and were soon able to pose for an ambitious photoshoot upon completion. The (now) sparkling white gallery has had the Goodgym touch and is ready for the weekends festivities!

Fancy getting more involved with B'Fest? You can, volunteers are always welcome!

Follow us to see what’s on next on our area's calendar.

Tonight five GoodGymmers put their muscles to the test, as we helped the folks at Brighton Youth Centre to prepare for their imminent move while their usual home is renovated.

Together we lifted and shifted chairs, tables, cabinets and boxes down two flights of stairs - ready to be either moved to the new premises, recycled or donated to the community.

With so much to be done the volunteers at BYC were grateful for the extra (wom)man-power, and we're excited to visit them in their new home soon!

Brighton Youth Centre is an important and much-loved hub for young people in Brighton, providing space to socialise, activites and even a rooftop skatepark.

9 shorter goodgymers, and 1 tall goodgymer jogged to the new premises of Brighton Youth Centre which is in a building that used to house an entertainment venue based around optical illusions- cue a migrane inducing spotted carpet and deep purple walls!

The GoodGym-ers got to work clearing a back storage room of fun games such as table football and space invader machines. We took the job very seriously, ensuring the table football worked after being reassembled by having a quick kick about! ;-)

We then donned our 'people at work' overalls and transformed the back room from dark purple, adding the first coat of white paint, and the office area from blood red to clean white. The one tall GoodGym-er amongst us (thanks Rob!) was designated ceiling cutter inner.

An awful lot was accomplished in a short time, leaving time for the more hardened amongst us to join Pippa for a quick fitness session around the Queen Victoria Gardens.

We always have a great fun at the Brighton Youth Centre and we will be soon back!

B'fest is the Brighton Youth Arts Festival, run for and by young people.

B’fest is ON this week with a jam-packed programme of gigs, exhibitions, workshops, dance, theatre, skate and so much more bringing together 100+ young people from across southeast to the Brighton Youth Centre.

Here we were this Tuesday again to help serving pizzas, facilitating (playing, actually 😊) games at the “Gaming Retro-bution” taking over with Retro Gaming consoles galore and making personalised badges and stickers with our favourite designs and logos: GoodGym, of course, but not only.

We enjoyed our time, and it was a blast! We can now proudly wear our donated B’Fest Tshirts and stand ready to offer our superpower once again in the near future, when the Brighton Youth Centre will need to move to other premises.

B'fest is the Brighton Youth Arts Festival.

Now in its 10th year, it is run at the Brighton Youth Centre for and by young people, 13-19 years old. B’fest launches this coming Saturday 21st and will be running until the 28th of October during half term bringing together young people from across southeast to celebrate all things creative and cultural, from skateboarding to stand-up, dancing to D n D, street art, radio, music, theatre and more.

The organisation and delivery of B.fest is supported by a team of volunteers. GoodGym Brighton responded with enthusiasm to their call for extra help to get all well set-up in time for the coming up festival, soon approaching!

It was our first visit at the Brighton Youth Centre, and WE LOVE IT!

We loved the venue, slightly disorientating and to be rebuilt soon, but so shiny in all its colours and colourful offering for everybody who is or feels young (like we do 😊), including football, basketball, music production, cookery, archery, table tennis, dance sessions and an indoor skatepark at the top floor!

We loved the volunteering tasks offered by Charlotte, B’fest producer, keeping us moving and in full action for an hour or so, by moving and stacking chairs, tables, dismantling furniture and clearing all throughout to create a more open and creative space to host lots of workshops during the festival.

And, of course, we love the B’fest programme. We will be back again next week!

Sign in here for our next Tuesday’s group session on 24th October

There are also more B'fest volunteering opportunities during this and next week, via the BYC sign up B'Fest Volunteers Form