Hello and welcome to the Youth Arts Fringe blog. The young people who are getting involved with the festival this year will be blogging throughout May about their experiences putting on a show.

But before we hand over to them, we thought we would kick off with some information about who we are.

In 2009 the Youth Arts Fringe enters into its second year as an annual event! YAF ’09 showcases the creative work of young people through youth services across Brighton and Hove. This year there are around 500 young people involved, working with 30 statutory and voluntary services, including those working in youth centres, hostels, mental health services, youth offending, LGBT, BME, schools and substance misuse support organisations. Hosted in May to tie in with The Brighton Festival, the Youth Arts Fringe is a multi-media arts extravaganza, showing a diverse collection of creative work across the city. This year YAF includes theatre, visual art, graffiti, photography, sculpture, dance, music and painting.

There will be 21 visual arts exhibitions and 10 performance events during May. YAF ’09 is organised by the Youth Arts Project, part of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Integrated Youth Support Service, YAF highlights artwork by young people (age 11-25) many of whom do not normally get the chance to participate in mainstream arts events. Some of young people involved are socially excluded or disadvantaged; some are out of education, work or training, and so don’t have access to the traditional routes to 'art'.