Introduction
The Brighton & Hove Virtual Festival brings a new dimension to the festivities and general carrying on that take place in Brighton and Hove during the merry month of May. There's the International Arts Festival, a Fringe Festival, Europe's largest festival of street theatre and our own virtual take on the whole thing.

This is the sixth annual Virtual Festival and, as in previous years, we've prepared a number of events and projects that will use cyberspace to enhance and expand the Festival.

Brighton & Hove Virtual Festival 2003 is organised by Sussex Community Internet Project.

SCIP started running the Virtual Festival in 1998 as the Internet, email and web pages started to hit the public consciousness. Many people were starting to hear about the wonders of the Net but relatively few were actually getting access to it.

In the past five years we have run two big events in the Corn Exchange, a series of outdoor events from Rottingdean Beach to Hove Lawns, via Pavilion Gardens and St. Anns Wells Gardens. We've held events in community centres, libraries, bars, cybercafes, pubs and (of course) in cybercspace.

We have run taster sessions for young people, old people and all ages in between. We've looked at business uses for the Net, its influence on education and the ways that it can help build stronger communities. We've been trying to put technology in its place - showing it as a tool for information and communications for everyone, not just the few who can afford it.

Taking the hype out of hyperspace...

» History of the Brighton & Hove Virtual Festival