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.

Yesterday was our third appointment in a row with a very uncertain weather calling the greatest GoodGym motivation to get out to help St Andrew Church in Hove, for our weekly group session.

We BELIEVED in it, and all worked out very well – apart the fact that I punctured my bike 😊.
Those dull dark clouds and weather warning of risk of heavy rain did not even touch us - just!

St Andrew Church is a busy city community church with a visionary plan to change their asset to create an open and inclusive space more adaptable to all, from small to grown up audiences. It is a community building, building for the community, where everybody is always most welcome!

In front of the church, their Friday’s meetings in the sanctuary have been lacking space due to invading weeds, promptly now removed by GoodGym-ers. And, indoor, you can now smell the fresh fragrance of botanic scent and of wax (a bit less botanic 😉) because of additional GoodGym-ers’ cleaning action!

Our eyes are already shining of excitement for what will potentially turn to be a GoodGym indoor refurbishment workout! For now, we support the great expectations of Rev. Dan, John, and of the whole community.

A nice group session for Jasmin, a visiting GoodGym-er from London. Follow us to see what’s on next

Delighted by the lovely warm and sunny evening, yesterday’s Brighton GoodGym group session helped the Waterloo Street Community Garden, a secret beauty and well used community space between The Old Market and the Waterloo Street Arch. The Old Market opened in 1828 as a covered marketplace for sales of meat, fish and vegetables, supplying the residential development of Brunswick, which was originally independent from Brighton and Hove village. Now it is an independent mixed-arts venue under the name "TOM – The Old Market".

Last year we helped the Friends of Waterloo Street Community Garden to win an outstanding award from the Royal Horticultural Society in the Britain In Bloom competition. And this year, 11 of us were here again to timely help our friends to maintain the royal title! So, we moved all the pots to clear the area and reach every hidden corner to then join a sweeping fest with brooms and dustpans!

Best of luck, dear friends!

Today the GoodGym gang ran 7 km to Wellsbourne Community Garden and back.

We welcomed new members Paul, Paul and Paul.

Stalwart member Rosie was running her 50th session!

We met Lucy, our task owner, at the Wellsbourne Healthcare Centre. She explained they had a volunteer gardening day tomorrow. Our task was to dig holes to plant wild flowers and plants to attract pollinators. We readied our destructive green fingers and shovels and got to work. Others made swift work of tidying and weeding the garden.

Stefania did a fitness exercise session to work on all those muscles we had neglected while running and digging.

To thank us, lovely Lucy kindly gave us cooking herbs from the garden and chocolate. How nice 🙂!