The 6 best things we saw at The Great Escape 2026
Presenting our highlights from the annual seaside showcase...
By Nick Reilly & Will Richards
As the old saying doesn’t quite go, you know that festival season is upon us once more when you’re pegging it along Brighton seafront trying to avoid being dive-bombed by seagulls with an insatiable bloodlust or an emptying of the heavens that will soak your very soul. Or, sometimes, both at once.
But that’s the price you pay when The Great Escape rolls around and you’re on a mission to try and find the artists who might come to define your life in the coming months and years.
The festival – widely regarded as the UK’s primary showcase – once again lived up to its deserved reputation in showcasing rule breakers, innovators and artists who could be the stars of tomorrow. After a weekend of running between the dancehalls and dive bars of Brighton, here’s the best things we saw at The Great Escape 2026.
Nectar Woode
There was a glorious moment on Thursday moment when the rain stopped and over on the beach stage, Nectar Woode began. We’re not saying those two things are linked, but listen to the sunny disposition within the Londoner’s soul-flecked tunes and you’ll understand exactly why that big fiery thing in the sky decided to finally rear its face when she started. Nectar’s tunes are joyous love songs, complete with her honied vocals which help the whole thing to shine. See her live and you’ll realise she’s the real deal. (NR).
Madra Salach
In terms of getting a crowd to shut the hell up, The Great Escape might be the toughest gig a lot of bands play this year. With an audience profile skewing heavily towards the music industry and sets filled with conversations that could have been LinkedIn messages, cutting through can be hard. It takes a voice like that of Madra Salach frontman Paul Banks to get a heaving Chalk venue to sit up and take notice on Thursday evening. Banks’ voice – a towering beast of a thing – leads his Dublin band through songs that touch on trad Irish music but are also influenced by drone and punk (none of the members were raised on traditional music). There’s a stirring intensity to everything they play, and their calling card song ‘The Man Who Seeks Pleasure’ is powerful enough that, when technical difficulties during a second set on the beach the following night mean it is the one and only song they can play, it still sends the crowd home stunned. (WR).
Angine de Poitrine
The buzziest of bands descended, presumably from their spaceship, onto Brighton for two shows which proved that they absolutely meet the overwhelming global hype thrown their way in the last few months. We witnessed their secret show at The Old Market, which was a show where mystery Quebec men Khn and Klek proved to be two of the most technically accomplished musicians you’ll ever see live. The double-necked guitar playing of Khn is a sight to behold, while the synchronicity between the duo makes for one of the tightest live bands we’ve seen for a hot minute. It’s easy to laugh at the wild swinging nose of Klek when he hits the drums with considerable force, but the talent of this pair is something completely serious. Think Battles meets Dr Who and you’re halfway there. There’s no way we’ll be seeing them in rooms of this size again any time soon. (NR).
Compost Compost Compost
Word of mouth stories tend to define weekends at The Great Escape, and this year there were a hell of a lot of whispers about Compost Compost Compost. With no music officially released yet, catching their gorgeous and stirring set at the picturesque One Church was the only way to be introduced to this special new band. There are heavy hints of Radiohead in their intricate sound – their guitarist even has the long fringe and Telecaster of Jonny Greenwood to match – but the shadow of dance music lingers strongly, giving them a sound that is fresh as well as referential. (WR).
Bleech 9:3
Late-night sets at The Great Escape have an entirely different feel to those earlier in the day. While a lot of the music at the festival is played to buttoned up and muted crowds, people let their hair down as the midnight approaches. It’s perfect for Bleech 9:3, the London-based, Dublin-raised grunge revivalists, who lay waste to the appropriately dingy basement of Komedia as the clock ticks into Friday. Their set ends just as they release their self-titled debut EP into the world, and its songs are played with gusto and fury. With clear nods to Nirvana and more recently Wunderhorse, Bleech 9:3 are a punk band not afraid to write a chorus. Their songs can be dark and dissonant, but always explode into joyous melodies that hint at a future in rooms far bigger than this basement sweatbox. (WR).
Saint Clair
On Thursday evening, Londoners Saint Clair rocked up at the Green Door Store with a sound that immediately transcended the cosy confines of the venue. Theirs is an arena-primed blend of 90s grunge, complete with the kind of woozy distortion that would make Kevin Shields proud. All of which is to say that they’re a formidable live beast and you sense it won’t be long before rooms far bigger than this one duly await. (NR).