BMC27 PROGRAMME TBA
THEATRE 1
MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING
THE TEMPEST
159 Kings Rd, Brighton, Brighton BN1 1NB
Sponsored by
THURS 21st MAY 2026
9.15am: YOGA, WELLNESS & BEATS
Tammy & Bex are back at BMC for a healing and energising Yin to Yang journey, combining music, sound healing, breathwork and movement.
Expect a fusion of sound and yoga for your mind and body, just the tonic to start your festival days!
To reserve your spot please email oscar@brightonmusicconference.co.uk
Hosted by Tammy & Bex
11.00am: MIXING KIDS & MUSIC: CAN PARENTS THRIVE (NOT JUST SURVIVE) IN DANCE MUSIC?
Following the success of the Motherhood & DJing panel, this next chapter at BMC expands the conversation to parenting in the music industry, bringing both female and male perspectives into focus.
Moderated by Mini Da Minx, the panel features DJ Shanaz, Just Her, Phil Hartnoll and Shillin’, who will explore the realities of raising children while sustaining careers in the fast-paced world of dance music; from touring schedules and late nights to identity, balance, and evolving priorities.
Through honest and engaging discussion, the panelists will share their lived experiences of navigating parenthood alongside creative careers, highlighting both the challenges and opportunities that come with it.
Together, they’ll tackle a vital question: can parents truly thrive in this industry… not just survive?
This session aims to inspire, open dialogue, and help shape a more supportive and inclusive future for parents across the music scene.
Moderator: Mini Da Minx
DJ Shanaz
Just Her (Crosstown Rebels / LNOE)
Phil Hartnoll (ORBITAL)
Shillin’
12.00pm: FEEL THE SOUND (in association with Anderson Acoustics)
Where Music and Sound Meets Wellbeing Through Deep Listening explores how music can be experienced through the body, not just the ears.
This panel focuses on the power of feeling sound to create a deeper, more immersive listening experience.
By shifting from simply hearing to truly sensing music, we open up more meaningful ways to connect with sound and enhance overall wellbeing.
Moderator: Lisa Douglas (MYSD)
Andrea Cockerton (In the Dark)
Becky Wixon
Dr Emma Greenland (Anderson Acoustics)
Eduardo Manzano (Anderson Acoustics)
Julie Freeman (ShapedSound)
Vanessa Thomas (Soul of the City Choir)
1.00pm: IMPOSTER SYNDROME (in association with AFEM)
Imposter syndrome is common across electronic music, from DJs and producers to managers, label executives, and founders.
In an industry shaped by rapid change, high visibility, and constant comparison, many professionals experience moments of self-doubt, even as they build meaningful careers.
We want to reframe imposter syndrome not as a personal failure, but as a shared experience that can be understood and managed.
Artists and industry leaders will explore how these feelings show up at different career stages, how they can impact creativity and decision-making, and how learning, perspective, and support can turn uncertainty into confidence.
Come and learn how you can own your seat at the table.
Moderator: Finlay Johnson (AFEM)
Emma Cordell (Downtown)
Ines Martinez (Fourvenues)
Iona Thomas (Resident Advisor)
Lewis Sinclair (Cygnus Music)
2.00pm: HEARING HAZARD VS HUMAN HEALTH (in association with ACS)
Is the future of sound and music changing?
The impact of sound on human health is a paradox:
While loud dance music is enjoyable it can also be a hazard and permanently damage your hearing. However, intentional “immersive” sound is widely used for deep therapeutic health benefits
Topics being discussed and explained will include:
– The Mechanism: How we process sound and hazards of loud music
– The neurological experience
– The physical experience
– Sound as medicine, therapy and parasympathetic regulation
– The future of the dance music experience in venues
Moderator: Jono Heale (ACS)
Anne Savage. (DJ, PhD Researcher)
Cherub Sanson (Sound Artist)
Dr. Fabrice Bardy (Hearing Neuroscientist)
Julian Fyson (Silent ‘disco’ Yoga)
Tom Middleton (Sound Architect & Neurosensory Designer)
3.00pm: THE CYCLE OF BURNOUT IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: SURVIVE IT. BREAK IT. COME BACK STRONGER (in association with Love Vocals)
Burnout in the music industry isn’t random – it follows a pattern. A cycle of survival where creatives push through pressure, overextend, disconnect, crash, and rebuild… only to repeat it again.
This panel breaks that cycle down — and helps attendees identify exactly where they are within it.
We’ll also acknowledge that burnout doesn’t look the same for everyone. It can present as exhaustion, loss of creativity, anxiety, emotional numbness, high-functioning overdrive — or as deeper industry trauma that leads some to quietly struggle, withdraw, or leave altogether.
Drawing on the Continuum framework — developed through our work with artists and our retreats in the Scottish Highlands — we’ll explore how survival mode becomes normalised, why burnout keeps recurring even at high levels of success, and what it actually takes to interrupt the pattern.
Through a clear, relatable model, the audience will be guided to recognise their position in the cycle — whether they’re in overdrive, depletion, or recovery — and understand how to move forward. We’ll also share how we actively support artists to step out of burnout, rebuild safely, and re-emerge with greater clarity, resilience, and creative connection.
Led by a panel of mental health professionals alongside legacy music industry recording artists, this session brings together both clinical insight and lived experience at the highest level. Attendees will leave not just with awareness, but with grounded strategies to break the cycle, navigate industry pressures, and build a more sustainable, long-term career in music.
Presented by Love Vocals, with its mental health division SoundMind and Continuum retreats — supporting artists through burnout, recovery, and sustainable careers.
Moderator: Antonia Lucas (Love Vocals & SoundMind)
Angie Brown
Denise Devenish
Luvain
Suzanna Dee
4.00pm: LISTENING WITHOUT LIMITS (in association with Anderson Acoustics)
The Role of Tactile Sound explores how sound can be experienced beyond traditional listening.
This panel will examine how tactile sound can create more immersive and inclusive experiences while also supporting hearing health by reducing reliance on high volume levels.
By engaging the body through vibration, tactile approaches offer a way to deepen connection to sound while helping to minimise ear fatigue.
Moderator: Sunita Dhaliwal (TEA)
Ariana Alexander-Sefre (SPOKE)
Dr Emma Greenland (Anderson Acoustics)
Julie Freeman (ShapedSound)
Laura Hine (Tinnitus UK)
The House Poet (Michael Grierson)
FRI 22nd MAY 2026
9.30am: SOUND BATH
KuraZana is a facilitator of sound and DJ, using her voice, electronic elements, crystal bowls, gongs, and drum. She creates ethereal, mind-manifesting journeys where frequency moves through the body like a massage, softening the nervous system and guiding the mind through immersive inner dimensions.
Hosted by KuraZana (Sound Alchemist, DJ, Yoga Teacher)
11.00am: BEYOND HEARING (in association with Anderson Acoustics)
A Tactile Music Listening Experience invites participants to explore music in a new way — through touch as well as sound. What if you could feel music as much as hear it?
Using our tactile sound benches, this interactive workshop brings sound to life through vibration and resonance felt throughout the body, creating a deeper, more immersive connection to music.
By engaging the body as well as the ears, this approach supports hearing health by reducing reliance on high volumes and minimising ear fatigue.
It offers an engaging introduction to alternative listening, supporting wellbeing and encouraging a more mindful, embodied experience of sound.
Moderator: Dr Emma Greenland (Anderson Acoustics)
Dr Fiona Miller
Julie Freeman
12.00pm: ADHD
We’re bringing together DJs who’ve built careers in music whilst navigating ADHD to talk about what nobody discusses: the hyperfocus sessions that produce your best work at 3am, the rejection sensitivity that makes a bad review feel like a personal attack, the time blindness that means you’re either three hours early or catastrophically late, and the executive function challenges that make the business side of music feel impossible.
This isn’t a “turn your ADHD into a superpower” panel. We’re having the honest conversation about what it actually takes to manage yourself in an industry that’s already relentless, when your brain works differently.
Our panellists have lived it; the highs of flow states and creative breakthroughs, the lows of burnout and missed opportunities, and the systems they’ve built (often through painful trial and error) to sustain careers without destroying themselves in the process.
If you’re in music and you have ADHD, or you work with people who do, this is the conversation you’ve been waiting for.
Moderator: Abi Lemon (The Brilliance Effect®️)
Jumpin Jack Frost
MEERA
Promo Zo
Dr Rachel Gow, RNutr, FHEA
Silvia Montello (Voicebox)
1.00pm: NAVIGATING NIGHTLIFE SOBER
The music and nightlife industry has long had a complex relationship with alcohol and substances, but something is shifting.
A growing number of artists and people participating in nightlife are choosing sobriety, challenging the assumption that you need to be intoxicated to belong in spaces built around altered states.
Moderator: Milly on Air (Back 2 Life)
Brandon Block
Denis Sulta
Fancy Shews!
Savannah
2.00pm: ELECTRONIC MUSIC LEADING INNOVATION IN SUSTAINABILITY
Electronic music has always pushed boundaries of creativity but how can it lead the charge in tackling the climate emergency?
This forward-thinking panel brings together innovators from across the scene to explore how creativity, technology, and community can innovate and drive meaningful change.
Featuring Anna Johnson, award-winning sustainability leader with extensive cross-sector experience. Anna brings case studies from her work with Anjunabeats, Glastonbury and Hope Solutions, Marc Carey (Evolution Music), Pioneer of the world’s first non-toxic, plant-based bio vinyl, and Werkha (Saturama), known for his immersive live audio-visual storytelling, we will dive into real-world case studies from within electronic music culture highlighting both breakthroughs and setbacks. Charlie Forbes Certification coordinator at A Greener Future and Sally J Freeman, Consultant Dietitian specialising in sustainability will moderate this panel and ask how we can truly make a change in the current Climate Crisis.
From ambitious ideas that didn’t quite go to plan to initiatives reshaping engagement and behaviour across the value chain, this session will explore what it really takes to innovate for impact. How can we design events, releases, and experiences more intentionally? How can artists and organisations use their direct connection with different audiences to influence positive change?
With a focus on experimentation, learning through failure, and building on bold ideas, this panel invites the Electronic Music Industry to think differently and act urgently while we can make a lasting, positive impact.
Moderator: Sally J Freeman (Consultant Dietitian / Founder, EAT SLEEP RAVE RELAX)
Anna Johnson (Climate Transition Strategist)
Charlie Forbes (A Greener Future)
Marc Carey (Evovinyl)
Werkha (Saturama)
3.00pm: EAT SLEEP RAVE RELAX
Sally delivers her Eat Sleep Rave Relax workshop bringing clinical insight to the realities of electronic dance music. Combining evidence-based nutrition, sleep science and nervous system regulation, Sally explains what’s happening in your body under pressure and how to manage it.
Expect myth-busting advice, dancing and practical tools to reduce burnout, boost energy, sharpen focus and protect your long-term health.
If you’re navigating late nights, constant travel and stress, this session will help you to manage your health and perform at your best.
Presented by Sally Freeman (Consultant Dietitian / Founder, EAT SLEEP RAVE RELAX)
4.00pm: LET’S TALK ABOUT SUICIDE PREVENTION & SUICIDE BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT
A well-timed conversation has the potential to save a life. However there’s the fear that saying the wrong thing could make matters worse.
We’ll discuss two major signs to look out for, the groups who face the highest risks, when to ask ‘Are you thinking about suicide?’ and what to do if they say yes.
Financial insecurity, the pressures of touring, burnout, imposter syndrome and ADHD can bring about feelings such as ‘What’s the point?’.
If you’ve ever thought about suicide, supported someone who’s experiencing suicidal thoughts or lost someone to suicide, this is your opportunity to ask questions.
Moderator: Ellie Talebien (DJ / Presenter)
Hema Patel (Reset & Rediscover)
5.00pm: LGBTQI+
Queer nightlife: How does putting our LGBTQI+ community first and celebrating their brilliance when working in nightlife help us mitigate the commercial pressures of the industry and what if anything, can us queer nightlife dears teach the broader nightlife industry about surviving tough times.
Can you ever be successful in nightlife by taking everyone in your LGBTQI+ community with you?
Moderators: Wildblood and Queenie
Alex Berry & Lebby (Dykes on Decks)
Nathan X
Scarlett Langdon & Xandice Armah (Gal Pals)
COUNTDOWN TO #BMC27
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VARIOUS VENUES AROUND BRIGHTON
We are proud to support
The Last Night a DJ Saved My Life Foundation,
our official charity partner.