Official vs Alt: The winner of The Great Escape 2025
In 2024, The Great Escape basically ground to a halt. In the end, over a third of the lineup cancelled their sets or simply didn’t show up for it, as musicians took mass action due to the festival’s ties to Barclays and Barclays’s ties to Israel. The result was an empty official event and a beautiful flipside: a 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.
In 2025, with bad ties cut, the official lineup was heaving with names to notes. It was back to business as usual—all the buzziest acts from the last year were there. All the names heard whispering around local venues or excitedly chatted about by tastemakers and music fans alike were gathered together at the seaside for a few days, meaning that ticket holders got to see them all or see as many as they could fit into their schedule.
But after 2024, the question that lingers around the festival seemed louder than ever: Is The Great Escape actually for ticket holders? Looking around at the crowds, it doesn’t feel that way when it always seems like such a high proportion of the crowd has a delegate pass. I can’t complain, I had one too, donning my media pass at the front. But I was there at the front, weaving my way through to excitedly see some of my favourite new acts like Luvcat and Sunday (1994), only to be greeted by mostly stillness and quiet.
There is never really much dancing at The Great Escape. Heads bob a bit, but essentially, the room is a sea of crossed arms. In less heaving venues, bands often have to make that awkward announcement, asking people to move forward, before the industry heads never want to seem too keen. There is rarely a sing-along; people clearly struggle to get a clap going, and there is often a prevailing sense of everything being very sterilised.
Until 2024, I am not sure if I’d ever really noticed that, or if I was merely Stockholm syndromed into it, going down to the beach year by year because it’s the done thing. But when things fell apart last year, and I found myself in different venues in the city, heading to Rossi Bar instead of the temporary Beach Stage, I remember feeling like I stepped out of a vacuum and into something else, into a normal gig.
With the official lineup now back and busy, I wondered how 2025 would feel; if the alt-escape would return to what it was before, which was always busy but more of a secret held only by residents and primarily exclusively played by local acts. Clearly, though, after 2024 brought it into the light, more people had the experience I did and didn’t want to give it up.
More artists played both, spending their time in the city dipping between official festival shows and then adding alternative ones into the mix. It feels like ticketholders did the same too as while I was at some heaving official sets, the one time I actually fully could not get in the door was when we tried to see Home Counties play their free alt-escape set downstairs at Hope and Ruin; a bar that decided to keep up hosting the free stuff like they did last year, while also returning to having the official sets upstairs.
There was a second time, too, and this was all on a Saturday. That’s another off Great Escape fact that begs the question of ‘who is this all for?’ The event usually kicks off on a Thursday or a Wednesday in this year’s case, and then you spend all weekend talking to people who will tell you that by Saturday, they’ll probably have left – or at least the industry will have. Everywhere, it is noticeably quieter by the weekend as the delegates often wander off to other commitments or simply head home, now that it’s non-expensive time. That’s obviously not the case for everyone as Saturday saw bustling sets for Dog Race and the Submarine Cat record label showcase – but I’m not sure either could compare to the insane heat that was coming out of the heaving venue room at Folklore as people could merely manage to poke their heads into the overflowing space Hutch were playing; their fifth free set of the weekend.
Reflecting on the weekend, so many of my highlights come from moments where I didn’t have to wiggle my wristband at the doorman; ELLiS-D nearly setting Green Door Store on fire, the hushed awe at Soft Top’s set at Molly Malones, the late night dancing at Goldheart’s 1am show, the rattling walls of the Rossi basement as The Itch asked for everything to be turned up. But there were wins on both sides; Pem’s breathtaking church set, Picture Parlour being total rockstars, The Orchestra (For Now) blowing minds on the pier.
Maybe the winner is the harmony that the festival has fallen into. The fact that the festival paid attention to the boycott and changed its ways is an incredible display of artists’ power. It was such an incredibly empowering move, especially to the independent artists who made that change happen. But the endurance of the alt-escape still being as big of a part of the weekend as they were when they saved the day last year feels like the ultimate win, ensuring that those same independent artists are still receiving the love, support and excitement they deserve and those without the wristband can still sink their teeth into the feast that is the festival.
