Festival Review: The Great Escape 2026
The Great Escape returns for its 20th birthday of irritating locals and spiking hostel demand past what anyone should pay for in a dorm room; and yet, we’ll all be back next year.
I would begin this roundup with the evergreen ‘It was another great year at The Great Escape’ - thankfully, as I had not yet been vetted to the showcase until 2026, I have been saved from my own laziness by circumstance alone. Trying to explain why an event is worth seeing to people who have lapped my engagement for years is a hardening challenge for the fresh journalist; and worse, my gushing review will probably sound like what I would say for all of the 19 years of the showcase that preceded this one.
What I can offer is information gleaned from hours of snooping by conversations as my final remaining AirPod slipped between the cracks of The Brighton Pier on Day 1. Aside from the obvious buzz around certain acts (Angine De Poitrine, Kingfishr, Peaches), a few previously-unfamiliar names resurfaced many times from the mouths of impressed delegates and casual festivalgoers alike. Amongst them was Really Good Time; I initially thought this was a boatrocking band-who-shall-not be named - at whose show everyone had a really good time - until I realized on conversation #3 that Really Good Time was the namesake of a returning Irish band that had seemingly stuck in the memories of those who had seen them in a prior year. While I did not catch them live, Keo and equally-buzzy Lime Garden pulled in the younger crowd with no issue, and those who were able to get in emerged with glowing reviews.
Truthpaste, who played at the Still Listening Showcase at Horatorios, was also an inescapable name throughout the whole week: the string-forward five-piece preserved the charm of their recordings to satisfaction with the provincial no-mans-land rock that many in The Windmill scene all divebombed at once in 2025, albeit from slightly different angles. Despite the trendiness of the sound, very few manage to inhabit the musicality with such je ne se qua as Truthpaste - either live, or when immortalized on recorders.
The swiftly-germinating rock band Aint also showed up to Horatorio’s for our Saturday event with a hemmed, no-frills routine: knifepoint vocals that extended to the moors of the lead singer’s range, frostburnt guitar slides, and a honed, slitting approach from the other members. While reminiscent of their recorded music, a band that pushes their sound even further toward meticulousness for live performances earns my immediate respect.
When not at LinkedIn Live (the conference and networking portion of the festival), I haplessly wandered into some venues. Amongst the most memorable of them was Irish singer-songwriter Annie-dog, who solo-manned her DJ board in the seedy underbelly of Chalk: tracks from her EP like ‘Pressures of the Heart’ being mixed and respun live as she crooned into her anteanned headphones; the sort of multitasking without the scaffolding of other bandmates was an effort that few would be convicted enough to override the obvious nerves that would spur and one that at least is entitled to respect, if not fully-cheesed enthusiasm for her vintage-hued digipop sound. The performance of Jazz vocalist Alice SK was similarly imprinting, filling rooms and - more impressively - getting those rooms to shut up; we encourage you to read the Start Listening To Q&A that I was able to cram in pre-show.
Aside from being reenergized by the premier event, the sheer volume of press that came, even to see tiny artists - editors, co-conspirators, and the like - was truly rousing. Contrary to the shark-tank model of hungry press that headline-forward music festivals can naturally foster, my rotating groups of journalists and editors were always splintering to go see artists with 1,000 listeners on Spotify. Though not entirely optimized based off of streaming numbers, The Great Escape constructs a convergent space that serves as an acceleration ground - with a lucky few ballooning in hype post-festival until the same press delegates hop on a plane for a 15-minute interview the next year.
Some final observations to brace the odd newcomer for next year: the weather app is not a reliable source of information (nor are Great Escape veterans who think they finally know the telltale signs of an impending storm; they don’t), and the boardwalk is not a safe space to stroll and dine (the seagulls buckling over their own weight in the sky are even more opportunistic than the delegates).
Photography: TNAM.UK