As we etch further into 2018 we come up to the most wonderful time of the year, no not Christmas, festival season; and with festival season comes the biggest and best new music festival in Europe, The Great Escape. The event held in Brighton sees a plethora of bands from all over the world convene to a wide variety of venues across the beautiful south coast city for one huge party in the middle of May.
This year the festival will take place on 17th May to 19th May and promises to be one of the best yet with the addition of the 2000 capacity festival site located on Brighton beach; the site will host 2 brand new venues as well as more bars, food stalls, hang out spots and pop up performance space. Not only this but the festival site is being curated by the likes of Island Records, AWAL and Dr.Martens and if that’s not enough to wet your appetite we haven’t even moved onto the huge line up TGE is bringing to the seaside.
As usual The Great Escape has packed their line up full off excellent artists from across the globe with bands coming from the likes of South Korea, Australia and America, to name put a few, to showcase their talents at the prestigious festival. New Yorkers Bodega hop over the pond for one of their first ever UK shows and it promises to be one of the highlights of the festival with their debut album coming out June 1st; expect them to provide the Brighton seafront with some exciting new music, Issue Sixteen cover stars Sorry will make an appearance as well as Irelands favourite trio, WhenYoung who are sure to become your new favourite band.
Along with the above, we find some of the most exciting new bands entering the fray with Dutch 4 piece, Pip Blom heading back over after their tour with fellow TGE performers Sports Team. Southampton’s very own Pale Seas will also make an appearance following their debut album last year, plus the weird and wonderful Insecure Men who are sure to dazzle.
Not only are The Great Escape introducing the best new bands around, they’re showcasing some of the most exciting bands this country currently has to offer with the raucous IDLES sure to bring carnage to the South Coast, The Magic Gang will bring their feel good indie pop to the sea front along with Goat Girl, who will be flying high after the release of their amazing debut album this month.
The Great Escape have been kind enough to invite us to join the madness as we take over The Haunt for a day on Friday 18th May to bring you some of our favourite bands around including the previously mentioned Bodega and Sorry, the wonderful Warmduscher, The Ninth Wave, Hotel Lux, Crewel Intentions and on top of that, Gengahr will see out the night as headliners.
The fun doesn’t stop there however, other acts performing across the weekend include Bad Sounds, Black Midi, Bloxx, Boy Azooga, Charlie and the Lesbians, Drahla, Gus Dapperton, Hatchie, Hockey Dad, Iguana Death Cult, King Nun, Let’s Eat Grandma, Maisie Peters, Marsicans, Peach Pit, Phobophobes, Phoebe Bridgers, Plaza, Pretty Vicious, Rascalton, Soccer Mommy, Stella Donnelly, Stereo Honey, Superorganism, Team Picture, Teleman, The Orielles, The Rhythm Method, Touts and Yassassin.