If the 2026 edition of Brighton music festival The Great Escape could be summed up by one phrase, it might be ‘believe the hype’.
Now in its twentieth year, the festival has established itself as the go-to festival for discovering the next big thing. It just so happens that this year, it has booked quite a few bands who are already well on their way to international success: Westside Cowboy, Lime Garden, Keo, Ireland’s own Madra Salach and Bleech 9:3, and perhaps the hottest ticket in the world right now: Angine de Poitrine.
And, as it turns out, all of these bands proved themselves worthy of the incredible excitement surrounding them as they took to stages across the seaside city this weekend.
But The Great Escape is first and foremost a hub for finding new up-and-coming bands to latch on to, and this year’s festival certainly delivered on that front too.
TGE caters as much to music industry folk looking to network and unearth the next big band as it does to ordinary music fans, but don’t be put off: this just may be the world’s friendliest music festival. It’s so easy, when you’re waiting around during the half-hour break between acts in a given venue, to strike up a conversation with a stranger next to you by asking who’s the best band they’ve seen or far, or who they’re most looking forward to seeing.
The way TGE is programmed – hundreds of artists across over twenty venues spread out across the city, most of them playing only one or two gigs over the weekend – means you miss out on so many acts you’d like to see, but I saw so much incredible music over the four days. Here are the eight best acts I saw.
MADRA SALACH
Dublin alternative folk six-piece Madra Salach have just come off their sold-out debut UK and Ireland headline tour, so their greatness is not exactly a secret. But their live show has to be seen to be fully understood. Few bands can create an atmosphere like them, and they transfix the packed-out Chalk audience and bring us completely into their world. The set they play is comprised of six back-to-back bangers, including an excellent new song.
They open, as always, with their debut single ‘Blue & Gold’, but they’ve transformed it with a much darker and moodier arrangement, trading acoustic guitar for electric and mandolin for synth and tin whistle. They follow it up with ‘The Tunnel Tigers’ (a cover of a Ewan MacColl song that they’ve made entirely their own) and unreleased original song ‘The Ribbon Factory’, both of which they perform with such energy and intensity that the crowd around me are entirely taken aback and immediately won over.
Much has been written about frontman Paul Banks’s guttural, impassioned vocal performance, but every time I’ve seen Madra Salach live, I’ve been astonished by how he and the rest of the band inhabit every song they play, whether it be a cover or an original, convincing you that they really feel every lyric they sing and note they play. Their trademark joviality and humour are on full display here too – Paul asks everyone to shout ‘Happy Birthday special boy’, ostensibly for a friend of his, before admitting that it is actually his birthday.
The biggest disappointment of the festival comes at Madra Salach’s set on the beach on Friday night, where extensive technical difficulties mean they only have time to play one song. The hundreds of captive audience members who have turned up to hear one of the festival’s buzziest bands are, naturally, dismayed, but the band promise to give the song their everything. And they do, as do the audience. It is, of course, ‘The Man Who Seeks Pleasure’ that they play, and the power of hearing that song live with an audience screaming every word back at the band never gets old. And honestly, I’d still choose to watch one song by Madra Salach over most other things.
WESTSIDE COWBOY
‘Britainicana’ band Westside Cowboy were the talk of TGE 2025 after they played four sets across the weekend. I missed them last year, but having fallen in love with them in the past year – they’ve released two EPs since, and played an unforgettable headline gig at the Grand Social in January – I made sure I had a prime spot in the front row when they took to the Chalk stage on Thursday night.
Westside Cowboy are one of the most joyful bands on the scene at the moment; they clearly love performing this music with each other, and give every single song so much energy and enthusiasm that you can’t help but be charmed by them.
It helps that they’re incredibly talented musicians, too. They’ve mastered their blend of indie rock and folk, and every song they play in their tight 45-minute set, from their breakout single ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’, to the five unreleased songs they treat us to, is a hit.
The one-two punch of stripped-back folk song turned barnstorming singalong ‘Strange Taxidermy’ into ‘In the Morning’, where all four members gather around one mic accompanied by one guitar and a single snare drum, is a particular highlight.
Multiple-part harmonies turn out to be a theme of the festival, but no one does it better than Westside Cowboy. The frenzy of a four-part harmony backed by some of the fastest drumming, guitar strumming, and bass plucking you’ll encounter is utterly transcendent when it comes from this band.
BABYRAT
The title of ‘most fun gig at the festival’ is easily claimed by Cork self-proclaimed ‘bitch-pop’ quintet BABYRAT. No one was safe from ratmania at the band’s sets at the Music from Ireland showcase at the Prince Albert and the Ticketmaster New Music stage on the beach, not even the delegates who usually stand at the back with their arms crossed. The band fit nine songs into their 30-minute set, going on a whirlwind journey through punk pop, pop punk (there is definitely a difference), and rock.
Frontwoman Zoe Callanan is a force of nature; her voice bounces off the walls of every venue she steps into as she puts every ounce of emotion she has into each lyric she sings. Paramore’s Hayley Williams is the clearest comparison, but Callanan and the rest of the band are much more playful and cheerful – they’re constantly jumping around the stage, their energy so infectious you can’t help but want to jump with them.
Set opener ‘Roses’ is a highlight, a three-minute unstoppable burst of energy that immediately establishes what BABYRAT are all about: they’re such skilled musicians, but above all, they’re committed to having a great time and making sure everyone else does too. I also particularly enjoyed ‘Kickstart’, in which the band got the crowded rooms to sing along with them, and ‘Realise’, during which guitarists Jamie Kierans and Matthew Lucas climbed into the crowd and encouraged everyone to crouch down and jump up with them during the final chorus – yes, even those delegates at the back.
If your mind is open to having fun and connecting with those around you through music, then you’ll reap dividends from the BABYRAT experience.
ANGINE DE POITRINE
If Westside Cowboy were the talk of the festival last year, Angine de Poitrine were certainly the name on everyone’s lips this year. The enigmatic Canadian math-rock duo were the headline act for the festival’s opening party down on the beach on Wednesday night, and if you didn’t get there early, you hadn’t a hope of getting in.
The atmosphere in the tent as their crew, also dressed in polka dots, set up their equipment, was already feverish. By the time Angine de Poitrine, in their now-iconic papier-mâché masks and polka dot outfits, emerged onto the stage, the whole room was ecstatic. What followed can only be described as an experience, one that writing can’t fully capture – you have to see it for yourself.
If the story is that Khn and Klek de Poitrine are time travellers from space, then their home planet must be operating on a whole other musical level than ours. These two are some of the most talented performers I’ve witnessed in a long time. They maintain a sense of spontaneity and freedom in the music while remaining utterly in sync with each other throughout. It’s a testament to the friendliness and generosity of the festival attendees that I somehow ended up in the second row from the front during the gig, and actually being able to see how Khn was creating those sounds with his microtonal guitar and loop pedals was incredible.
Equally as enjoyable as the music is the lore that the show is steeped in: their outfits, their language, their dance moves, their triangle hand shapes. The band are excellent at physical comedy, and it only enhances the performance. Heard live, this music is honestly irresistible, and proved to be one of the most fun gigs I’ve been to in recent times, even more so because everyone around me loved it so much. I hope that their spaceship is docking somewhere near you soon, because everyone should get to experience the world of Angine de Poitrine.
MY FIRST TIME
My favourite discovery of the festival was, without doubt, Bristol post-punk five-piece My First Time. If you stepped into the Soundwaves beach tent during their performance on Friday afternoon, you were part of My First Time, whether you wanted to be or not. Endlessly playful and lively, they had the crowd dancing by the second, insanely catchy song they played. Frontman Isaac Stroud-Allen is a revelation. He’s a feral presence, prowling around the stage, wrapping the microphone cord around his neck, climbing onto the barricade, and jumping down into the crowd to mosh with them – much to the irritation of the venue’s security guard.
The band’s lyrics are political and character-based, both insightful and incisive. Stroud-Allen effortlessly inhabits every nasty persona he takes on, from the baby boomer-style figure in ‘The Kids Are’ lamenting how ‘The kids are smoking all the weed/doing pink cocaine/taking Ozempic/faking OCD’, to the high-performance influencer-type in ‘Man of Ill Repute’ who proclaims, ‘I like that Ben Shapiro kid, he really knows what’s going on / And he’s not afraid to stray away from all you liberal scum.’ They’re talented, energetic, funny, clever, and the crowd falls in love with them instantly. I can see them winning over every single audience they’re put in front of – their abrasive charm is impossible to resist.
BUKKY
Musician and producer BUKKY opened the Music from Ireland showcase on Thursday afternoon, meaning my day was immediately off to a great start. Last-minute changes meant she was missing her band (who I understand joined her for her second set later that day), but she’s such an earnest and charismatic presence on stage that it didn’t even matter. Her set is mostly comprised of songs from her brand-new EP ICEBERG, which is a promising release from an exciting artist. She loves experimenting and trying out new things in her music, she tells us, which ranges from hip hop to R&B to pop.
EP closer ‘CHANGE THE CHANNEL’ is the set’s stand-out song and the one that resonates the most with her captive audience, which sees BUKKY switch between skilful rapping and beautiful, heartfelt singing. Her lyrics are sincere and fascinating, exploring such topics as the complexities of being a Black Irish woman living in England.
TEENAGE JOANS
On Saturday evening, I made my way down to the beach to watch emo two-piece Teenage Joans close out the Sounds Australia showcase. The weather certainly wasn’t ideal – freezing, with a cutting wind – but Teenage Joans made the most of what they had, and gave everything they had for the audience who’d stayed outside to see them instead of retreating to a warm indoor venue.
The artists who resonated most with me throughout the weekend were the ones who clearly loved being up on stage and performing for us. Teenage Joans couldn’t have been happier to be there, and their performance is all the better for it. Their songs are emotional, upbeat, and catchy. I loved the contrast between drummer Tahlia Borg’s sweet singing voice and guitarist Cahli Blakers’s raspy voice. If they’re this enjoyable to watch on a cold Brighton beach as the rain comes in, I can only imagine how great a time you’d have watching them play in a tiny sweatbox venue.
BROOKI
Irish alternative rock band Brooki are yet another example of a band at TGE 2026 who live up to the vast hype around them. There are queues all the way out of the Prince Albert when they take to the stage on Thursday afternoon. A lot of these people who are clambering to get in to hear Brooki likely first encountered them on TikTok or Instagram, where clips of their song ‘Amber’ have gone viral, contributing to their rapid rise in popularity in Ireland and the UK. But Brooki are much more than one viral clip.
Their intense brand of alt-rock is overwhelming and all-consuming, as the four members appear to be completely locked in with one another and the music. Brooki are a really easy recommendation for fans of fellow Irish rockers Fontaines D.C. (some members of which were actually in attendance at the festival). And, for as much attention as ‘Amber’ has gotten, it’s entirely deserved: it really is a transporting, astounding song, and frontwoman Sarah Brookfield’s raw vocal performance is breathtaking.
Early bird tickets for The Great Escape 2027 (12-15 May) are now on sale.
