The Great Escape 2026: The Kooks announce special spotlight show on the beach
Brighton’s beloved The Great Escape festival has announced that British indie favourites The Kooks will headline a special 20th anniversary spotlight show.
The one-off celebration will take place at The Great Escape Beach on May 13th, on the first day of the four-day festival.
The choice is fitting, as the band was formed in Brighton in the mid 2000s, and were one of the breakthrough acts to perform at the very first edition of The Great Escape in 2006, the same year they released their multi-platinum debut, Inside In/Inside Out.
Both the album and the festival are celebrating two decades this year, hence the fitting collaboration, which is also in partnership with NME.
The special set will be supported by fivepiece Girl In The Year Above.
Looking ahead at the nostalgic moment, Luke Pritchard of The Kooks said, “Brighton always feels like coming home in a way no other city does. The Great Escape is special because it’s fundamentally about music happening in rooms where you can feel people breathing.”
He added, “There’s something really powerful about when the distance between the band and the crowd just disappears. It always takes us back to the beginning and why we started this in the first place. I hope people leave feeling like they caught something rare. We can’t wait to see you there!”
Along with this announcement, the festival also unveiled over 100 new acts to add to the 2026 line-up. Highlights include alt-indie six-piece Adult DVD, Australian post-punkers Dogworld, London’s Dead Dads Club, and Australian songwriter Matthew Ifield.
Previously announced performers include Ain’t, Annie-Dog, Ashaine White, Ava Joe, Dermot Henry, Girl Group, Saint Clair, Tommy WÁ, Tukki, and more.
On the ground at The Great Escape in 2025, Far Out deemed the festival a “harmonious, completely thriving Alt-Escape as Brighton’s local and independent scene not only picked up the slack but proved it could all be even better.”
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