One of City’s much-loved venues has expressed serious concerns about a planning application that would severely jeopardise its future operation.
Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT) is objecting to the BHASVIC planning application (ref BH2025/02901) for an artificial grass floodlit football pitch and Multi Use Games Area in very close proximity to the theatre.
The non-profit making registered charity was built and opened in 2015. During its first 11 years it has invested any spare funds to improve facilities, including a new box office / accessible toilet building and a number of major infrastructure projects, in order to make BOAT an established and viable cultural venue for the long term.
BOAT provided entertainment for over 27,000 attenders in its 2025 season and works with local charities and high quality touring companies alongside local theatre groups including Brighton Little Theatre and Third Space. It is consistently noted as a cultural destination in the top five of outdoor venues in the country and is unique in being the only purpose-built outdoor performance space in the City, bringing a wide range of entertainment to audiences of all ages.
General Manager Will Mytum states:
“It should not be underestimated just how much of a negative impact the use of these pitches would have on BOAT. Regular and consistent noise just 50 metres from our boundary would render any non-amplified performance utterly unviable. For clarity, this is not equivalent to existing ambient park noise. Sustained shouting, ball impacts on fencing and whistling from dozens of people across several hours would utterly overwhelm anything on our stage. We are not exaggerating when we say that the future of the theatre would be in serious jeopardy if these plans go ahead.
BOAT is certainly not against the idea of better sports facilities for students at the college and we engaged with BHASVIC about the proposed development during the 2025 spring and summer. However, nothing we proposed and discussed with BHASVIC has been adopted in the current proposal. It is remarkable that despite being the closest neighbour BOAT is not mentioned in the applications noise management plan.”
The application can be read in full here:
Read BOAT’s statement and submit objections via the website: https://www.brightonopenairtheatre.co.uk/
