BrightOn The Inside

There’s something about the first weekend of September that makes us want to buy stationery despite already having far too much of the stuff. Resist the pull of the fancy notebooks for a moment, because there’s a lot going on: Brighton’s first Dyke Pride, a countryside pool party, free cabaret, new Japanese street food, art in miniature and films for four quid.

Brighton Psych Fest is back for round three this September, bringing more than 40 bands to venues across Brighton for 14 hours of psych, post-punk, krautrock, garage rock, dreamy pop and various other sounds that don’t necessarily fit neatly into a box. And when they say multi-venue, they mean it. This year’s festival spreads across Brighton Dome’s Corn Exchange, Concorde 2, Komedia, The Hope & Ruin, Volks, Alphabet and Patterns, with one wristband getting you into the lot.

After six and a half years as Nanima Asian Kitchen, the Kemptown café/restaurant on St George’s Road is turning up the volume. Owners Nicky and Lonnie have transformed the space into Deep Dive, a new neighbourhood jazz and blues bar opening on Friday 4th September, with three days of DJs, live music, food and drinks to kick things off. Nanima closed in late August after six and a half years, but this isn’t quite goodbye.

The August bank holiday weekend always hits a little different: yay, it’s an extra day off, but boo it’s the last one of the year and the countdown to the C word is officially on. But let’s not wallow when we’ve got a bumper bank holiday of fun (and sun?) ahead.

Spotted a massive influx of very shiny scooters on the seafront? That can only mean one thing: the Brighton Mod Weekender is back for its annual August Bank Holiday takeover. The four-day celebration of mod and 60s culture kicked off last night (Thursday 27th August), but there’s plenty still more to come, with live bands, all-night clubbing, record shopping and the sight of scores of scooters making their way along the coast.

There was an unexpected poignancy to seeing 9 to 5 The Musical this week. Dolly Parton, who wrote the music and lyrics for the show, died on Tuesday, aged 80, just hours before it opened at Worthing’s Pavilion Theatre. On opening night, Karla Tracey – who plays Doralee, the role made famous by Parton in the original film – broke the news from the stage before the performance began. The announcement was met by an audible gasp from the audience, before Tracey dedicated the show to Dolly.

Now, you know we don’t normally get too excited about chains around here, but we’ll make an exception when there’s free food involved. Mowgli, the Indian street-food restaurant chain founded by former barrister Nisha Katona, has had a bit of a makeover at its Brighton restaurant – and it’s celebrating by giving away free meals on Friday. The Dukes Lane restaurant reopens on Friday 28th August and the first 100 people through the doors from midday will get their meal completely free.

Have you ever thought that wrestling lacked a bit of, um, sock removal? Yeah? Well, then Saturday is your day. A brand-new combat sport called SockOff is making its debut in Brighton on 22nd August, with its first-ever event taking over St Peter’s Square for six hours of competitive sock stealing. And, yes, it is (now) a real sport. The rules are pleasingly simple, too: two competitors wrestle each other with one clear objective – get your opponent’s socks off before they get yours.

Fresh off our evening of colander-wielding to watch the eclipse (never thought we’d write that sentence), we’re back with another dose of weekend fun.

No eclipse glasses? No meticulously planned trip to an observatory months in advance? Don’t worry, you can still catch tonight’s celestial action – and there are a few last-minute ways to get your hands on the all-important specs. If the solar eclipse has somehow crept up on you, you’re definitely not alone. Tonight (Wednesday 12th August), Brighton will get a pretty spectacular partial solar eclipse, with around 90 percent of the sun covered by the moon at its peak.