THE LARGEST celebration of digital culture in the UK has come to a close following four weeks of pioneering exhibitions, installations, conferences and performances.

A total of 160 events from 131 organisers drew local, national and international audiences to venues in Brighton Digital Festival September.

The fourth edition drew in its strongest sponsorship and partnership programme with support from premier sponsor American Express, as well as Pure 360, Brandwatch and Brilliant Noise It also enjoyed ongoing support from Arts Council England and Brighton and Hove City Council, which provided Grassroots Fund awards to independent event organisers to put on outstanding community-driven events every September.

This year the festival had a strong focus on collaboration, encouraging and supporting partnerships between public and private arts organisations and businesses.

Digital educational company Maker Club turned to experimental theatre group Root Experience to bring dramatic chases and encounters to Project: OggBots! as part of the festival’s education commissions.

Artist Wesley Goatley created devices to discover wireless networks and transform them into evolving soundscapes as part of WIRELESS-FIDELITY, with support from University of Brighton at their newly opened Dorset Place gallery. Internationally acclaimed conferences, including Reasons to be Creative, dConstruct and Improving Reality, brought renowned speakers to the city, with digital rights activist and co-editor of Boing Boing Cory Doctorow providing a keynote address to a packed Brighton Dome.

Improving Reality delegates witnessed musician and artist Holly Herndon breaking up with the NSA in the premiere of her new music video, HOME, directed by Dutch design studio Metahaven.

Brilliant Noise debuted its new conference Dots to a sold-out crowd at Duke’s at Komedia, and confirmed that the event will return in 2015.

Artist Seb Lee-Delisle brought a sense of spectacle to the first weekend of the Festival with Laser Light Synths.

Hundreds of people and passersby played with the illuminated instruments, creating an incredible laser light show on New Road.

Brighton Mini Maker Faire took place on the same day and drew in crowds of more than 3,000.

Since establishing itself as the faire of its kind in 2011, it has remained the largest in the country, this year showcasing 70 projects from 230 makers. The digital arts offering was a particular highlight of 2014 with Lighthouse turning their gallery into a newsroom for Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev’s Newstweek – Fact Fixing Bureau.

The New Sublime also took place at Phoenix, organised and funded by curators The Fortunecats.

Six local artists could also bring fully realised pieces to unconventional spaces in Brighton thanks to the new Arts and Technology Commissions from Brighton Digital Festival.

These included Revolution #10, a sound collage manifesto created by Joseph Young from the voices and opinions of locals and hosted online at www.revolution10.uk.

The Brighton Chamber of Commerce hosted three events addressing the potential of new technologies, how to take e-commerce to wider international audiences and the power of digital content for business growth. In the final week Wired Sussex coordinated 33 events in workspaces of 26 member companies – encouraging them to open their doors as part of the annual Creative, Digital and IT Open Studios, with more than 300 people going behind the scenes of some of the most creative and innovative businesses.

Andy Budd, Brighton Digital Festival Consortium member managing director Clearleft and organiser of dConstruct, said: “The diversity of events was amazing this year, from comedy gigs in the back of a pub, to huge interactive street performances, and from small community meet-ups to internationally acclaimed dance events.

“It just goes to show how integrated into every aspect of society digital technology has become.

“So I’m really excited to see how we can open the festival up to even more people next year.”

Many events have already confirmed their return to Brighton Digital Festival 2015, which is now entering its planning stage, including Improving Reality, dConstruct and Dots.

Visit www.brightondigitalfestival.com and follow @DigitalBrighton for the latest news and to find out how to get involved for next year’s festival.