The Great Escape 2025 review

22 May 2025 - Editorial

From our (read landlord’s) cloudy kitchen in Hackney, we can barely believe Brighton was so pleasant this time last week. Inclemency in the past has always guaranteed full shows for all, all day long, but with over a decade of attendance in, we’re never going to complain about the sun. The notes we took during this year's Great Escape were scattered throughout our phone: 2am abbreviations, various screenshots and untitled clips of shows we clearly enjoyed - all now decoded for you below. Plenty of acts on the main lineup were already with major labels or big indies, many of which we’ve featured here in Compass while unsigned over the last few years (always great to see), so our focus, as ever, was on those with something available. Was a real pleasure bumping into some old friends, colleagues, and seeing good folk and their artists doing well - Great Escape is always reliable for finding that new favourite obsession - tickets for next year are available now.

Our favourite of the festival has to be Brighton-based Slag - and after spending time with the singer’s dad (lovely man) we’re aware that we’re not alone in trying to pin them down to chat label, management, legal - everything in fact. We caught them twice over the weekend and still have this song in our head, a week later. They’re doing Dot to Dot this weekend, supporting Prima Queen, and I very much hope they end up with the right people. Great band.

Goodbye are also in Brighton, we love the demos we’ve heard but only caught half a set and would be keen to see it again. Lovely management, no label or agent - more tracks coming in Autumn. JD Cliffe was fun in Patterns basement, lots of energy, and a very busy room - a lot of chat about that TikTok cover, but to be fair, the band and JD were solid, even if the set direction was a little mixed.

Westside Cowboy are signed to Island Records for their album, presumably great for Nice Swan and hopefully Heist or Hit, who they’re currently with, and obviously wonderful for the band themselves - each of their sets had a queue outside until the end, helped no doubt by the Emerging Talent Comp win too. We love a gang vocal, certainly one of the most popular acts of the weekend. We’ve seen the usual comments about queues and clashes, but you’re never actually short of something to see. This year again, the Alt Escape - plus many of the unofficial showcases from various promoters or pubs - housed the majority of unsigned or independent artists, including Cordelia Gartside, who we enjoyed at Pink Moon Cafe, a showcase on the Saturday afternoon. Cordelia’s music is here, and worth your time - was great with a full band. Opening that showcase was one of our fellow new favourites, HOPS - an insane mix that felt both retro and new, they have a joint release with Icebeing, but we’ve loved listening through this EP of theirs too - heavy and fun. 

Also fun, Belfast’s Makeshift Art Bar played the rooftop of Resident Records and won a bunch of new fans - their debut release ‘Lacklustre Writing Makes Fundamental Reading’ is sold out online, few copies left via the band direct/on merch stalls. Check out Dinked Edition too if you’re yet to.

Other popular shows were: Everything at Rossi Bar - lost count of the number of people asking if I saw The Itch and their midnight set - if you missed it catch them at Wide Awake tomorrow (DJ set) and find them here for more info. Max Baby went down well, as expected, more from them via this link, as did Daffo, Pecq, and the yet to be pinned down Maddie Ashman. We caught Child of Prague, and so should you. We were asked about KEO at least three times a day, lots of emo revival chat too, which we don’t mind at all. Porchlight at the Mesmerist were good, something about the singer kept everyone’s attention - not 100% on label status but take a listen. Uncle Junior play the So Young showcase in London tonight and have a few more listed on their insta.

Come late Saturday afternoon, it was great to see so many people at the beach for the Sounds Australia showcases - three stages this time, always something new and interesting and for a fair few, their first time playing in the UK. We already banged on about Miss Kaninna in our preview last week, but hers was one of the sets of the festival for us - and an emotional one at that. It’s not easy relentlessly speaking up or speaking on issues that matter to you, and as a white brit I don’t ever pretend to understand - but Kaninna and her team have worked hard to create a space where you can hear what’s really being said, understand her music in context, and advocate for the issues close to them - all while smashing a performance. Miss Kaninna plays the Lexington tonight, with more UK tour news to follow... Acopia were a popular watch while in Brighton, as were Sydney’s Sex Mask and Gauci too. Find more here.

We’re aware that there was a load of chat around Lewis Capaldi and the various sightings of him / rumours of a show, but WE saw Sam Allardyce at our hotel - and not sure he was there for Aaron Rowe. (England’s only manager with a 100% win record.) We missed out on the womxn’s football Saturday morning (thanks for the invites Lizzy and Abbie) but count us in for next year. Until then!

Early bird tickets for The Great Escape 2026 are available here.

Words: Ruth Kilpatrick