The Alt Escape: The five best acts to catch beyond the lineup
The Great Escape is great—it’s in the name. But one of the best things about being in Brighton for that weekend has to be the Alt Escape, where a huge mass of more ones-to-watch land in the city, occupying even more venues for a secondary lineup of free shows. While the official festival already leaves you spoilt for choice, the Alt makes it a complete overload of talent.
Last year, when the official festival was derailed by boycotts, it was the Alt Escape that won. For years now, this side set-up has always been a strong offering of the weekend for musicians and music fans alike, offering them even more and providing new names a chance to get involved. But in 2024, the true power of this grassroots, unofficial festival was proved as more and more venues put together a lineup.
For 2025, the strength is going strong as there is simply an insane amount of free shows to be attended. It’s not just venues putting them on; it’s bars, cafes, shops, even just street corners. It’s also not just local Brighton bands occupying these slots, as the Alt Escape brings in the same international class of talent as the main festival.
It’s overwhelming, though. With so many posters to look through and so many clashes to negotiate, it’s tough to know where to turn. But as we prep to head to the seaside for a massive weekend of finding new favourite acts, we’d be turning here, to these five stand-out acts.
Five essential acts at the Alt Escape:
Goldheart
Those paying enough attention to the London live scene a few years back likely remember Fake Turins, the expansive 11-piece collective that burned bright and then burned out at a momentous final gig at Village Underground. They were led by Dominic Rose and crafted in his artistic image, and it all begs the question: What does a man do to follow all that?
The answer, in Rose’s case, is Goldheart. Or, really, first it was Max Fulcrum and the Win, which naturally morphed into Goldheart – a band with fewer people (far easier logistics) but the same scale of ambition. Their debut track ‘Barracuda’ shows that well as the spanning odyssey of a single is definitely not the typical pick for a launching song. But at their live sets, the rest of their tracks trace everything from uber-catchy choruses and hooks to poetic interludes, wall-of-sound disco-psych moments, flutes, big guitar moments, and, almost inevitably, crowd surfing.
They’re on late, but with that much brought to the table, they’ll keep you well fed and energised into the night.
Saturday 17th – 1:00am – Daltons
Hutch
If you’re in Brighton and you don’t go see Hutch play, I’ve heard that the city personally kicks you out and bans you for life. The town’s music scene constantly makes a good claim to being perhaps the best in the UK right now, but at the centre, Hutch are always sitting like a diamond.
At every hometown show, the room is packed to the rafters as people come out in droves to see one of the town’s finest creations. Delivering nostalgia-packed psych, it’s as if Brian Wilson took drugs and actually had a really good time with his friends, whom he loved dearly. Or, given the wholesome energy that a Hutch gig always delivers, especially when the band play ‘Rustle’, a song dedicated to a made-up figure that represents their bond, maybe it’s more just Brian Wilson if the Beach Boys had been besties instead of complex brothers. Either way, they promise tight harmonies and songs that will make you leave and instantly want to go buy some flairs.
Wednesday 14th – 10:00pm – Green Door Store
Friday 16th – 10:00pm – St Nicholas Church
Friday 16th – 00:00 – Pink Moon
Saturday 17th – 3:00pm – Molly Malone’s
Saturday 17th – 8:00pm – The Folklore Rooms
Saturday 17th – 10:00pm – The Venue, Mithras Hall
Emma Bradley
Emma Bradley is fresh off the back of a total artistic reincarnation. On her latest EP, Winona’s World, she took full control, learning to produce to be able to make the project fully on her own and not have to compromise at all on the finished product. The result is a gorgeous, cinematic and sometimes glitchy and gothic project that lies somewhere between Imogen Heap and a Danny Elfman score.
Her show at the alt-escape will be the first back since all of this, and the first time these EP tracks have had a real outing on the stage. Who really knows what form that will see them take, whether Bradley will turn to her more folkish or balladic roots to reinvent them for the stage, or if they’ll take on some other iteration. But no matter what, it’s sure to be beautiful and a landmark moment for an artist on a mission to start things anew.
Saturday 17th – 2:55pm – Casablanca Club
Big Long Sun
Once again, if you’re going to be in Brighton, you’d better go see some Brighton talent. What started as the bedroom project of multi-talented musician, painter, poet and filmmaker Jamie Broughton has recently grown into something bigger. Now, his live sets come with an expansive cast playing alongside him, as his music has levelled up and up into something adventurous.
His own Instagram bio says it best: He’s “making big confusing music that’s exciting.” There’s no one strict genre or style, no one expectation I can offer you for this set. Instead, it’s a merge of talent and ideas that comes out in different ways on different days but is always just as good. Playing alongside a cast of other incredible local artists on Wednesday night to open the festival up, get down early and get into it.
Wednesday 14th – 8:00pm – Green Door Store
Thursday 15th – 11:00pm – Waxing Pink
Friday 16th – 5:00pm – Presuming Ed
Saturday 17th – 7:30pm – The Prince Albert
Chartreuse
Chartreuse’s 2023 album Morning Ritual was a true standout of the year thanks to Mike Wagstaff’s incredible songwriting and the band’s impressive layering and melody-making. But since then, they’ve been getting better and better. This year, the group have released two new singles that mark a true step up into something even more special and mature.
It’s the sort of music that feels like it could only be made by a band like this, where the connections are so tight. The guitarist and drummer are brothers, the pianist is the drummer’s long-term partner, and the bassist is her childhood friend. They’re a close-knit unit, and that’s reflected in the perfect merge of encouraged experimentation in a supporting troupe and then the kind of unity that closeness like that fosters. No doubt, that too will be reflected on stage with their live set promising to be just as hypnotic as the musical offerings we’ve been obsessing over on streamers.
Friday 16th – 3:30pm – The Bootlegger
Friday 16th – 8.30pm – The Folklore Rooms
Saturday 17th – 2:45pm – The Folklore Rooms
