Last weekend a low-budget Irish musical about selling the Big Issue on Grafton Street won a major prize at the Sundance Film Festival, the most prestigious independent films festival in America - run by Robert Redford.

Called Once, the film will be shown at the Dublin International Film Festival this month.

County Brighton are busy planning events for the year ahead and developing a database of contacts and talent so that we may further develop the strong Irish events in the future.

County Brighton launched with its first event on 8 November 2006 featuring music, stories, poems and comedy in Brighton with more events planned.

We are creating a database of talent in the southeast of England and we welcome input from everyone. You can forward details of performers in any field (music, dance, comedy, spoken word, acting and story telling) to County Brighton.

Speaking on behalf of events on the southcoast, Bridget Whelan said:

We are busy planning events for next year and want to create a database of talent so please step forward if you are a performer in any field - that includes music, dance, comedy, spoken word, acting, and story telling. It also includes things that we haven’t even thought of….

If you are experienced, grand, but don’t let your lack of performance hours stop you from getting in touch. If you have been practising gags in front of the mirror now is the time to get in front of an audience. we intend to incorporate ‘Open Mike’ spots within events so you can try out your material in a supportive County Brighton atmosphere.

What could be a better start to your career? The wages are high: honour and glory (and yet still Sainsbury’s won’t accept it at the tills, can’t think why) but we will always try to be fair to performers given that we are at the beginning stages of building a cultural community. But the best advice we ever heard was: if you do something, something happens. Already an Irish band that performed for us free of charge has acquired a paying gig on the basis of that evening. But you don’t have to sing like Van Morrison or dance like Michael Flatley to belong to County Brighton. You’re fine just as you are. We’re keen to hear from anyone who wants to help us organise and grow. There’s a lot you can do behind the scenes - how much depends on you. Don’t worry, no one will force you to do more than you want but you will get the benefit of mixing with a very nice crowd.