Brighton’s festival for new music ‘The Great Escape’ – a resounding success!

Thousands of you will have noticed that the annual Great Escape new music festival has been taking over Brighton for the past few days.

Our city has welcomed acts and their fans from all over the world to our wonderful seaside location. It has been a truly fantastic success!

The event attracts hordes of like-minded music fanatics, who bring their wallets and purses with them. This injection of cash into Brighton is much welcomed by local hotels, bars, eateries and shops alike.

The event once again this year had a tremendously relaxed atmosphere, with many people conversing with people from all over the UK and around the planet for the love on music.

We, the Brighton and Hove News music team, were witness to this ourselves as we proudly escorted a delegate (and now friend) from China around with us for the duration of the event, held from Thursday 17 May to Saturday 19 May.

Chillin’ out on Brighton Beach at the Great Escape

It had the vibe of “one big happy music family” at every event that we attended right across town, from Horatio’s to the Old Market and everywhere in between.

We saw no aggressive acts whatsoever, simply people of varying ages, race and gender, just all getting along. This is the exact message that we want to send out to the world, that Brighton is welcoming.

Joe Talbot, above, singer from the Bristol group Idles, summed it up perfectly during the band’s electrifying performance on Brighton Beach when he told the crowd that he welcomes refugees and he also thanked NHS workers and people of that ilk for the terrific job that they are all doing.