The Great Escape Festival is a four-day

music festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

held in

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

every year in May. It is operated by MAMA Festivals and showcases new music from a variety of genres. The festival was founded in 2006 and hosts roughly 500 bands across 30 venues throughout the city. It has been likened to

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

. There is also a music industry convention section to the event, which is attended by over 4000 delegates. The 2011 to 2022 conferences have been programmed by the team from music industry publication CMU. Sat Komedia AnnaBSavage VF-4007

In addition to the main festival, there is also The Alternative Escape, a further strand of 'unofficial' shows. There was no event in 2020, and the festival was held in 2021 but was entirely online, both due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2024, over half of the lineup signed an open letter to the festival to drop Barclaycard as a sponsor due to its involvement in the supply of arms to Israeli military forces. Over 163 bands pulled out of the festival in protest, resulting in the opening showcase being cancelled.

References

External links

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The Guardian's Great Escape festival page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Escape Festival Rock festivals in England Music festivals established in 2006 Music in Brighton and Hove Festivals in Brighton and Hove 2006 establishments in England Music festivals in East Sussex

See also

References

External links