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The Great Escape Festival
May 15 - May 18
The Great Escape Festival launched in Brighton in 2006, quickly cementing its global reputation as one of the world’s leading new music showcases. Taking inspiration from its stateside counterpart South By Southwest (SXSW), the festival brought together a selection of the most promising rising musicians from a multitude of genres, running alongside a music industry convention aimed at providing networking opportunities.
The Great Escape Festival began life across 15 of Brighton’s venues, welcoming a bill of over 150 artists. The first year included notable appearances from the likes of Bat For Lashes, Paulo Nutini, The Fratellis, The Gossip, and The Kooks, setting the standard for the eclectic line-ups to follow. The conference element featured addresses by the likes of Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis and then-EMI boss Tony Wadsworth.
The festival grew in both size and stature over the following years, providing exposure for fledgling global superstars such as Adele (2007), Foals (2007), Bombay Bicycle Club (2008), Bon Iver (2008), The xx (2009), Ellie Goulding (2010) and Ed Sheeran (2011). Every Great Escape since has followed suit, priding itself on its ability to present new artists on the verge of breaking into the mainstream – the majority playing multiple 30-minute sets across three days.
In order to highlight the biggest artists on the line up, The Great Escape added standalone ticketed shows at Brighton Dome, latterly called the festival’s Spotlight Shows and spreading into other venues across the city. These comparably intimate appearances by more established artists have included Skepta and JME in 2015, Stormzy in 2016, Kano and Slaves in 2017, Mist + MoStack in 2018, and Lewis Capaldi in 2019.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Great Escape could not take place in 2020. The festival returned in 2022 to over 30 venues across the city of Brighton for a huge belated 15th birthday celebration.
After another successful edition in May 2023, early bird tickets for The Great Escape 2024 are on sale now.
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