Friends in Brighton suggested I come down from London to see This Rough Magic show on the seafront. The weather was great, the audience enormous - but the event itself a major disappointment.

The show came across as completely incoherent, while the scale between the human figures and the setting was severely miscalculated. The technical elements were inept. Its saving grace was the final firework display from the pier, which I was told is put on every weekend anyway and was the only thing not paid for by the public.

If this was an attempt to demonstrate to visitors how Brighton's artistic prowess alone should earn it city status, you had better keep to selling sticks of rock.

-Ms Kim Shannon, Fairhazel Gardens, London