The Labour party’s civil war on Brexit deepened at their annual party conference Monday. But less than a mile away, at the centre of The World Transformed festival, a lively discussion was underway about how Diane Abbott likes to drink her mojito.

As well as being shadow home secretary, Abbott played the role of an agony aunt at Novara Media’s Radical Variety Show on Sunday night, a sold out event that also featured Ed Miliband hosting a game show and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, spinning the wheel of public ownership (options included: Eton, Grindr and the parliamentary mace). Abbott, who told the crowd to follow their heart when it comes to love, got her loudest cheers when she allowed the host to pour liberal amounts of rum into her glass.

Even when stone cold sober, the mood at The World Transformed, Momentum’s alternative fringe festival, was far from the bitter Brexit dispute dominating Labour’s main conference nearby. But those who spoke to the Guardian there were largely supportive of Jeremy Corbyn’s position on Brexit. And when the vexed issue of his place in the EU was brought up, it was largely a gateway for other issues, from the NHS to housing.

“What’s tired a lot of people about Brexit is that it’s all about the political manoeuvring,” Wafa Elahi, a 24 years old PHD student volunteering at the festival, said. “I think being in a space that really says Brexit is about a lot more than that, it’s about looking at the underlying causes and what those mean, whether that’s austerity or underfunding of public services. It’s nice for me after getting so fed up with party politics and watching it all play out, to be in a space that’s about politics beyond Westminster.”

While most thought the Labour leadership’s position on Brexit was clear, there was confusion among some. John Keaveny, a 59-year-old volunteer at the Campaign nuclear disarmament stall, said: “I’m a bit confused because I think his view has always been to leave Europe because he believes its undemocratic, which I’ve got a lot of sympathy for, but that doesn’t come across so well in Labour party’s discussion on it, so I think its a bit fudged to be honest.” While Keaveny isn’t a member of the Labour party, he has voted Labour his whole life - and said he would be less likely to continue to do so if they became a party of “hard remain”.

Still, festival attendants were overwhelmingly in favour of staying within the EU. Lynn Davies, 65, a political education officer at her local labour party, said: “I’m remain and reform. I absolutely think that Corbyn’s position is the right one, it seems to be the only one that’s looking at the overall picture and looking ahead.”

She described the Liberal Democrats’ announcement that they would revoke article 50 as “ridiculous” and “appalling” and called for the Labour party to get behind Corbyn’s agenda. “At my age, I feel like it might be the last chance to see a socialist government and that’s quite upsetting.”

Ed Milliband at on stage at the Radical Variety Show. Photograph: youtube

The World Transformed, now in its fourth year, was spread out across 10 venues in Brighton, including their own “purpose-built utopia” with a museum on neoliberalism in Old Steine Gardens. Long queues were common outside of events, which included panels on the rewiring the economy to serve the many, protecting the NHS, and youth violence.

On Sunday evening, Karen Tily, a 58-year-old Labour party supporter from Ealing, said the only event she managed to get into was the Radical Variety Show, with the dress code “exciting trousers, no Tories”. “I’m keen to see Ash Sarkar, she upsets all the people you’re meant to upset,” she added.

Alongside traditional panels, the festival also boasted a number of participatory events, such as reading groups, workshops and strategy games. To transform the world, the festival put a great deal of emphasis on transforming participants from activists and campaigners to people who had a clear idea on what needed to be done once a socialist government was in power.

Dalia Gebrial, the 26-year-old program director, said to do that they wanted the festival to be as participatory as possible. “We wanted to reduce the number of panels and have way more things were people are actively engaged and constructing what we could do to get to a socialist government, but also how to build power so we can build structures that can outlive any changes within the government.”

Some of the ideas for doing so are not entirely conventional. In a strategy game on the first 100 days of a Corbyn governments, a room of around 50 people debated how to respond to different sceneries, from the civil service revolting to a sudden influx of climate refugees, and still ensure they can still implement their political program. An anonymous Labour MP assistant, who said that his employer was not a socialist, said the 2017 election was an important moment for many socialists – it marked the point when many stopped thinking about what a socialist society could look like to discussing the concrete steps to creating one.

At the strategy game, he said: “The game narrative makes it much better to imagine how that would actually work. It’s a way of thinking through it instead of just thinking about it.”

After each proposal from a group, a dice would be rolled to see whether it was a success or not. Any numbers below six meant the endeavour was a disaster. So when attempt to implement a trial of free buses across the city was proposed, it was cruelly quashed when someone rolled two ones. “Can Greta come in on a carbon neutral hand-glide?” one participant asked. While some groaned at the result, others encouraged each other to continue keeping their eyes on the prize.