Festival preview: The Great Escape

by Jon Fletcher

Over the next few months we'll be previewing some of the biggest festivals in the UK and abroad. Here, we kick off with Brighton's The Great Escape

"Ultimately though, the best way to enjoy the Great Escape may be to hang out at its fringes, indulging in lesser known bands in the smaller bars"

The Great Escape

When: Thursday 15 May – Saturday 17 May

Where: Assorted venues around Brighton

Official site: www.escapegreat.com

Past New Noise coverage

2007 - Day one

2007 - Day two

2007 - Day three

Click here for line up details.

The Great Escape is still in its infancy but it’s already establishing itself as the UK’s primary competition to SXSW. A music industry conference by day and a city-wide festival by night, the primary draw for most gig-goers is the line-up. The event is run by the Barfly group who already have an established track record in sniffing out new talent and as a result, the billing reads like a who’s who of upcoming artists.

The downside is that, as with the Camden Crawl, some venues fill up fast, leaving some punters hanging about on the pavement while their favourite bands thrash away inside. Unlike the Camden Crawl though, the organisers of The Great Escape are clearly trying to solve this problem, introducing a new text update service last year to notify festival-goers of venues to steer clear of. And it may be our imagination, but this year’s line up seems to have far greater internal consistency, so that similar artists are often found playing in the same venue, which may help to reduce the urge to dart between bars.

Even so, the solution for many is to camp out in one or two venues for an entire evening, taking the rough with the smooth. The Thursday and Friday Levi’s Ones To Watch nights at Audio look like a good starting point if you fancy taking that approach, as does the Honeyclub line up on the Saturday.

Ultimately though, the best way to enjoy the Great Escape may be to hang out at its fringes, indulging in lesser known bands in the smaller bars and, in the weather holds out, sampling some of the street entertainment that is a growing part of the festival. One of our highlights last year was sitting in the sun listening to the Noisettes play an astoundingly good acoustic set from a hotel balcony. It’s those gems that really make the Great Escape worth going out of your way for.