The Great Escape 2024

We're back with international delegates and our Selector Radio stage.

Take over 30 venues across one city, invite at least 500 of the best emerging artists to perform, invite audiences and music industry professionals from all around the world all looking for the newest sounds, stick it right by the beach on the coast of the UK and what have you got? Sounds to us like a great escape ...

The Great Escape is back – the renowned UK music festival, hosted in Brighton – and we're back again there too! We have over 30 delegates joining us from the music industry around the world and have our own Selector Radio stage, hosted by the wonderful Sian Eleri, at the Fabrica venue, Friday 17 May 2024 from midday.

Selector Presents at The Great Escape

Fabrica, Friday 17 May 2024

Four acts at The Great Escape in 2024. — Above, clockwise from top left: TIBASKO, Bel Cobain, VENUS GRRRLS and Mellt.

12.30 Mellt

'Dim Dwywaith is a fabulous record, drawing together college-rock stylings with crisp hooks and ringing guitar leads' – NME

Chant-like vocals, shrieking guitar and punching drumbeats, Mellt are a four piece band originally from Aberystwyth in Wales.

13.30 Bel Cobain

'Packs more of a punch than any moonlit serenade you've ever heard in your life' – The Line of Best Fit

Vocalist Bel Cobaun and her close-knit band fuse Latin and Afrobeat to create an infectious sound influenced by a truly wide range of sources from Pink Floyd to Fela Kuti to Angie Stone.

14.30 VENUS GRRRLS

'This is what I’m talking about ... being bold in your music' – Jack Saunders (BBC Radio 1)

Born from Riot Grrrl, VENUS GRRRLS are an alternative rock band from Leeds that merge twinkling synth motifs and raspy guitar lines.

15.30 TIBASKO

'Breaks, widescreen bass and emotive melodies ... taken to epic levels by Bulgarian folk samples' – DJ Mag

Electronic duo TIBASKO are establishing themselves as purveyors of epic, highly melodic electronica pitched somewhere between breaks, melodic house and techno and trance.

Meet our delegates

At the British Council, we connect with people all around the world. This year we're delighted to have so many music professionals joining us at The Great Escape. Find out all about this year's delegates in this pdf document.

The festival for new music. The Great Escape

Previous years with the British Council at The Great Escape

Selector Presents with Jamz Supernova at The Great Escape 2023

Our very own Selector Radio, hosted in 2023 by the incredible Jamz Supernova, presented a fantastic lineup of UK performers to The Great Escape: Louis Culture, RarelyAlways, Grove and English Teacher. Catch them at the Fabrica venue, courtesy of our YouTube channel.

Mestizo Collective at The Great Escape

Mestizo is a collaboration between some of the most exciting musicians in UK and Colombia – a project we’ve been supporting for many years now, designed to unite artists and producers from both countries. Musically, Mestizo combines Colombian folk traditions, London jazz and hip-hop and features jazz stars including Theon Cross, musicians from the Steam Down community and is led by the London saxophonist, Ahnansé. The project – co-produced with La Linea and supported by the PRS Foundation – began in Bogotá in late 2019 when the UK and Colombia counterparts met for the very first time.

The self-titled debut album, Mestizo, is due for release on Mais Um records on 5 May 2023 and they’ll be performing at The Great Escape too so don’t miss it!

More about Mestizo

You can find out more about Mestizo at The Great Escape at The Great Escape website. You can also hear Ahnansé in conversation with Selector Radio’s Jamz Supernova on Selector’s April 2021 show – 29 minutes in – delving into the collaboration. And if that's still not enough, we talked about Mestizo in our Music Team Spotlight series during Covid and you can watch Mestizo in action here.

The Great Escape 2021 Playlist

We asked TGE booker Adam Ryan to pick his top UK tracks, inspired by his years with the festival, for the Selector at 20 playlist celebrating 20 years of our very own Selector Radio show. Check out Adam's playlist.

The playlist below was the official playlist for the festival that same year.

The Great Escape 2019: International Delegation

Meet the international delegates visiting The Great Escape in 2019

The Great Escape 2019: Playlist

The Great Escape 2018: International Delegation

ARGENTINA: PAULA RIVERA, DIANA GLUSBERG

AUSTRALIA: MAGGIE COLLINS

BRAZIL: FABIANA BATISTELA, ANA GARCIA, PEDRO SEILER, MARCELO DAMASO

EGYPT: BASEM ABUARAB

GREECE: STEFANOS PAPAGKIKAS

INDIA: VARUN PATRA

KENYA: RIZWAN IBRAHIM

MOZAMBIQUE: JESS WHITE

PORTUGAL: LUÍS MONTEZ SÍLVIA BRAGA

SPAIN: PAU CORBALÁN

THAILAND: PIYAPONG MUENPRASERTDEE

TURKEY: ELIF CEMAL

UGANDA: KEMIYONDO COUTINHO

UKRAINE: VALERIIA PERKOVA

VIETNAM: NGUYEN QUOC TRUNG

The Great Escape 2018: Playlist

The Great Escape 2017: International Delegation

EGYPT: Amina Abodoma

GREECE: Dionysios Tsonopoulos

COLOMBIA: Gustavo Garci

AUSTRALIA: Travis Banko

VENEZEULA: Maximiliano Manzano Wenzel

BANGLADESH: Nafis Ahmed

ALGERIA: Rachid Briki

INDONESIA: Madrim Djody, Rizka Maulita, Teguh Wicaksono, Sarah Deshita Affandi, Felix Dass

VIETNAM: Nguyen Quoc Trung

MOROCCO: Hind El Ouradi

The Great Escape 2016: International Delegation

CHINA: Zhang Ran, Jef Vreys, Vincent Chen, Ni Bing, Li Ke, Archie Hamilton

INDONESIA: Robin Malau, Ratih Suryahutamy (Neonomora), Anton Wirjono, Michael Budiman

RUSSIA: Andrey Samorukov, Dmitry Zaretsky, Igor Tonkih

UKRAINE: Sergii Illin, Eugene Kibets, Vlad Malynovsky

VIETNAM: Mai Thang, Quoc-Trung Nguyen

The Great Escape 2016: Panel Discussion

Cathy Graham (Director, Music, British Council) introduced the session 'Going International' with Julia Payne from the Hub outlining research findings showing the state of play for UK music overseas. They were joined by a panel including Phil Patterson (UK Trade & Investment), Chris Tams (BPI), Paul Bonham (Arts Council England), Vanessa Reed (PRS For Music Foundation), Joel Mills (British Council) and Crispin Parry (British Underground).

The Great Escape 2015: International Delegation

RUSSIA: Natasha Padabed, Agent, Festival Programer & Music Curator, Sergey Kurokhin International Festival (SKIF)

MALAYSIA: Jia Ping Lee, Program Director

MALAYSIA: Grey Yeoh, Head of Arts & Creative Industries, British Council Malaysia

SOUTH AFRICA: Sibongile Musundwa, Project Manager, Connect ZA

The Great Escape 2015: Panel Discussion

We explored the topic of "Independent Music in the Middle East and North Africa" discussing the opportunities, challenges, audiences and how to bring talent through in the region. Journalist Arwa Haider was in conversation with some of the most pioneering, experienced and well-regarded independent music promoters in this region:

EGYPT: Mahmoud Refat, Founder, 100 copies

MOROCCO: Hicham Bahou, Director, L'boulevard Festival

LEBANON: Amani Semaan, Festival Director, Beirut & Beyond