Great Escape Festival's First Fifty Kicks Off In Style + more acts announced!
The Great Escape’s ‘First Fifty’ took over six venues in East London last week, as well as announcing loads more names for the Brighton based festival. The festival will be celebrating fifteen years in 2020. Having grown to become the festival for new music, The Great Escape will take place from 13-16 May 2020 and will host over four-hundred of the world’s most exciting up-and-coming artists across more than thirty walkable venues in Brighton.
We headed to Colours for one of the ‘First Fifty’ shows featuring Wargasm, Full Colour, John and Lazarus Kane.
Aptly named for the venue, Full Colour opened the night for us in a great fashion. The indie five-piece have been up and down the country lately supporting the likes of Vistas and Bloxx, and seem a perfect fit for The Great Escape.
Wargasm were next up, which certainly blew everyone away. For anyone not knowing what to expect from them, they brought energy, fury, and a whole lot of noise. After seeing their set I don’t think a single person in the room could argue with the proclamation that nu-metal was coming back, nor could they be disappointed by it.
A lot of mystery surrounds Lazarus Kane. With little to no online presence, it’s hard to say where the American and his band have appeared from. As soon as he takes to the stage however, you can tell he is quite the character. The room had filled once they arrived and it was clear to see why; the high tempo beats along with the element of ‘cool’ in his voice makes for the perfect mix of indie-funk.
Finishing off the night were the duo ‘JOHN’. Why are they called JOHN? Well… they’re both called John funnily enough. The two Londoners brought the showcase to a close with plenty of head banging, guitar shredding, and lyrics ever important to the world we’re currently in.
Added to the line up this week include - JAY1, GoGo Penguin, Velvet Negroni, Evie Irie, Angelica Garcia, Baker Boy, Sinead O’Brien, Odunsi (The Engine), Larry Pink The Human, Public Practice, Jada, BENEE, Phoebe Green and Aaron Smith. There’s the must-attend music industry TGE Conference taking place under one roof at the Jury’s Inn Waterfront, Brighton. Tickets for The Great Escape festival start from £70 and are on sale here.