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The acts not to miss at The Great Escape 2026
Heading to the seaside for the UK's ultimate new music festival? Here's who to catch
Every year for one weekend in May, the city of Brighton pauses its standard seaside fare and becomes a walking new music playlist. Catering for music lovers and industry professionals alike, The Great Escape has over 20 years earned its reputation as one of the best showcase festivals in the world, continuing to spotlight emerging talent not only from the UK and US artists but also from places far reaching as Japan, Faroe Islands, Nigeria and New Zealand.
With so much music on offer over four days, expect your step count to reach record highs as you race between Brighton’s venues, pubs, theatres, bars, beaches, basements, churches and piers to find your new favourite artist. But where to begin?
From noisy newcomers to those already carrying serious anticipation, these are the sets we’d recommend building your weekend around at The Great Escape 2026.
Brooki
13:00 Thursday, Prince Albert
16:00 Thursday, TGE Beach – The Deep End
Get down to the Ticketmaster New Music Presents showcase early to see buzzy Irish band Brooki bring atmospheric vibes that float somewhere between Moby and Portishead. Tracks like ‘Drifting’ have that stretched out summer feel, the kind of song inspired by the soundtrack to The Beach – which is exactly where there’ll be on Thursday afternoon. JB
La Sécurité
23:15 Friday, Charles Street Tap
Some of us baked sourdough, some of us started a band… Québécois art-punks La Sécurité formed during lockdown and have been building a head of steam ever since – making dancey noise rock sound fresh again. Now on Bella Union and playing TGE ahead of a sophomore album release in June, this is probably your last chance to catch them before everyone else does. PB
Julia Cumming
20:00 Thursday, TGE Beach – The Deep End
Sunflower Bean’s bass-slinging singer Julia Cumming has ventured into solo territory for the very first time, packing away the fuzz pedals in favour of paying homage to the golden age of easy listening. A swirling cocktail of cascading vocals and empowered lyrics about her desires, independence and idiosyncrasies, Cummings’ album Julia could easily – and quite rightly – slot beside Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Chicago and Todd Rundgren in any avid collector’s personal record haul. TCH
Eliza McLamb
18:15 Friday, Players
First growing a following with viral hit ‘Porn Star Tits’, McLamb quickly went from working on a farm in Kansas to recording a debut album. Her thoughtful 2024 record Going Through IT placed McLamb as a voice to watch, with second album Good Story arriving in October 2025. As a songwriter, she only gets more exciting – 2026 is sure to bring more meticulously-penned pieces of confessional pop. CD
Pigeon
21:15 Thursday, Charles Street Tap
Move over seagulls, the Pigeon has landed. Flying over from the rival coastal town of Margate, this psychedelic five-piece cosmically meld elements of Afro-funk and post-punk into a dizzying whole, held together by the multi-lingual vocals of Guinean singer Falle Nioke. After all the hype surrounding their debut album OUTTANATIONAL, you’ll want to get to Charles Street Tap pretty early to secure your spot for this show. JB
Angine de Poitrine
21:30 Wednesday, TGE Beach – The Deep End
Who’d have thought a Dadaist, d*ck-nosed math-rock duo would’ve become 2026’s breakout band? Thanks to their viral KEXP performance, here we are: Angine de Poitrine’s microtonal madness has ensnared and united live music fans from all corners of the internet. In an era where AI-generated music is swamping streaming sites on an increasing basis, the anonymous Quebecois musicians’ (who play under pseudonyms Khn de Poitrine and Klek de Poitrine) unreplicable oddness has seemingly captured the zeitgeist. Nonsensical as they might seem initially, the polkadot costumed, gobble-dee-gook speaking, two-necked guitar wielding duo are no flash-in-the-pan novelty – they might just be the best live act you’ll see all weekend.TCH
Kids Return
22:15 Friday, TGE Beach – Soundwaves
Clément Savoye and Adrien Rozé aren’t brothers, they don’t argue and they don’t play Britpop, but that hasn’t stopped “The French Oasis” label sticking to everything they post (maybe it’s the haircuts). Blur might be a better comparison, as would Air and MGMT, but then so would the twinkly cinematic nostalgia of Joe Hisaishi, who scored the 1996 Japanese film the band are named after. They’ll still get called The French Oasis again though… PB
The Gnomes
23:15 Friday, Dust
14:25 Saturday, TGE Beach – Soundwaves
The legacy of The Beatles rolls on – now recast as some kind of Australian psychedelic garage jangle-pop that sounds like the clean-cut rock’n’roll of A Hard Day’s Night played with the all drugs of Yellow Submarine. There’s much more going on here of course, and The Gnomes are riding a new Aussie guitar rock wave even as they keep looking back over their shoulder, but if you like a bit of music with your hooks then this is the band to see at TGE. PB
Way Dynamic
15:25 Thursday, Komedia Basement
21:30 Thursday, Patterns Downstairs
Last year Melbourne’s Dylan Young aka Way Dynamic released Massive Shoe, his deliciously laid back third album whose humorous title aptly captures the playful touch tapping away throughout these warm collection of chamber pop and folky tunes. If you’re a fan of Nick Drake or Brian Wilson, believe me when I say you won’t want to miss this one. JB
Skinny Dyck
Friday, 12:15 – Green Door Store
Saturday, 21:30 – Prince Albert
The breezy big sky sound of Ryan Dyck’s Canadian country pop won’t fit the sweaty walls of the Green Door Store or the Prince Albert this May, but it won’t really feel right anywhere outside a long highway drive with the windows down. Loose and wide and stripped-back to its Americana bones, expect Skinny to drive the whole crowd out into the sunshine (in a good way). PB
Bella Kay
17:15 Friday, TGE Beach – The Deep End
Bella Kay shot into the next tier of artists to watch when her single ‘iloveitiloveitiloveit’ went viral on TikTok earlier this year. Blunt, brutal and beautiful, the song cut through the clamour of confessional bedroom pop and made Kay the app’s next rising star. She’s now gearing up for the release of her first album, which promises to showcase her flexibility and imagination, and confirm her as one of 2026’s most exciting breakouts. CD
Lumï
19:30 Thursday – Waterbear
You’d have to possess a heart of stone not to get swept away in this ethereal R&B duo’s harmonies. Delicate and devastating in equal measure, Lumï have illuminated social media with sparse renditions of their own material and covers of their idols (such as Phoebe Bridgers) which are usually set in an unassuming, intimate environment like their attic or a bluebell patch in the local park. This Dutch duo are the personification of dreamlike. TCH
Darcie Haven
22:30 Friday, Fabrica
15:00 Saturday, TGE Beach – The Jetty
The Australian singer-songwriter embarks on her first European tour this May, swinging by The Great Escape as she goes. Comparisons have already been drawn to Gracie Abrams, Phoebe Bridgers and Great Escape alum Holly Humberstone. Her following is small but devoted, and it’s more than worth investing your listening hours now, as she shows no signs of slowing down – her latest single ‘Wishbone’ is a haunting electro-ballad with an irresistibly clear vocal. CD
MAQUINA.
19:30 Saturday, Waterbear
Lisbon three-piece MAQUINA. sound like they’ve emigrated from dingy heavy metal bars to the city’s nightclubs, but have held the thrashy spirit of being in a band tight to their chests. Balancing taut, pulsating rhythms with the loose ideals of meandering mid-song exploration, they’re a head-banging, body-popping, strobe-lighting ride replete with industrial rock riffage and motorik beats that chug on deep into the belly of the night. TCH
Maddie Ashman
23:30 Friday, Komedia Basement
Angine de Poitrine might have made microtonal music cool again, but Maddie Ashman has been using it to shape something eerie, dreamy and devastatingly beautiful. A true avant pop artist, there’s something genuinely unpredictable to each of her songs, as if you’re witnessing her unpick the logic and rules of songwriting in real time. JB
