The Great Escape Festival 2018
Despite having lived in Brighton for the last 10 years we’ve never managed to go to The Great Escape…until now! We had a really fun weekend seeing 31 bands. We are also very tired. Here’s some of our favourites in no particular order:
1. Didn’t think we’d ever go into that pub on the pier but there we were watching Her’s in Horatio’s. The singer was dressed like a cute fisherman and the bassist was dressed kind of like an ancient Japanese farmer and had a lot of moves. Thumbs up.
2. First gig on Thursday for us was Pillow Queens at the Prince Albert. Cool gals from Ireland.
3. M.I.L.K. (Emil Wilk) had a great tracksuit on and looked super happy the whole gig at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar (why does it smell so much down there though?!). Totally groovy fun vibes gig. Saxophone! He’s also just released a new EP – Maybe I Love Kokomo.
4. Oddest venue was probably St Mary’s Church in Kemp Town…ceiling height is MASSIVE and the sound wasn’t great but we really liked FUR. Also the chance to sit down was nice.
5. I love the hysterical crying men in this Goat Girl video so much.
6. Good band, good name: Iguana Death Cult went full throttle even at half three in the afternoon.
7. Japanese Breakfast was one of the very few bands we had actually heard of before TGE. She’s such a cute performer, wearing a nice floral matching two piece with light up trainers and jumping around the stage.
8. What great lads, FEET.
9. Couldn’t link the video for Patrick’s favourite song by Jimothy Lacoste as TFL have made him take it down due to some possible dangerous behaviour…Anyway here’s a warning about drugs instead.
10. Second weirdest venue was the basement of Queens Hotel to see Malena Zavala. Lovely dreamy guitar music against crushed velvet covered walls and fairy lights everywhere.
Watch the whole youtube playlist of our favourites from The Great Escape 2018 here. Hot tips for anyone going for the first time next year:
- Wear super comfortable shoes.
- If you haven’t heard of any of the 400+ bands that are playing (like us haha) do some listening research (preferably more than a week in advance – definitely not enough time to listen to so much music!) so there’s some bands you definitely want to see.
- Turn up half an hour early for the bigger bands to make sure you get in on time (we missed 10 minutes of Goat Girl in a queue).
- Take snacks!
Early bird tickets are already on sale for next year’s Great Escape here! See you there.