Spring has sprung, bucket hats are back, and the imminent return of UK festivals can only mean one thing: The Great Escape. After 20 years, the Brighton shindig has grown into an unofficial curtain-raiser for UK festival summer, spotlighting the hottest emerging artists from around the globe across 35 venues. Alongside a conference programme and The Alternative Escape’s free showcase events, the seaside city will be overflowing with live music this week, kicking off tonight (May 13) as viral duo Angine De Poitrine headline NME’s opening beach party.
Global stars including Haim, Little Simz and Sam Fender all cut their teeth at The Great Escape, while NME has previously been first in line to see ArrDee, Girl In Red and BRITs Critics’ Choice winner Jacob Alon. This Friday (May 15), the NME Stage will return to The Great Escape at The Old Market, spotlighting four artists from around the globe who feel destined for greatness: Girl Scout and Mandy, Indiana, who recently appeared on The Cover, Aussie folk-rock hopefuls Any Young Mechanic and NYC partystarters Chanpan. Read on to discover why these four should be the first names on your itinerary for The Great Escape.
Any Young Mechanic
Conceived in Adelaide’s intimate DIY scene, the group’s barnstorming, life-affirming folk demands to be seen live. The acoustic guitar, banjo and violin are their killer weapons, cut from the same cloth as Sports Team’s sarcastic pub-rock or “Black Country, New Road playing early Fleet Foxes songs”, in the words of drummer Jay Eliot Mee. The band world of south London that spawned BC, NR leaves a telling influence on the five-piece, who emphasise immediacy and imperfection more than committing to any particular sound.
‘There’s A New Place On The Market’ transforms a haunted house into a folk fairytale, while the playful high-tempo of ‘My House Divides’ is a certified bouncer, as meandering vocalist Sam Wilson babbles about pinot grigio and dog groomers. Both songs are taken from June’s incoming debut album ‘The Modern Shoe Is Ruining The Foot’, a title that sums up the vivid lyrical anecdotes scattered throughout. Now, they sail into Brighton on the back of latest single ‘Captain and Compass’, a hearty folk anthem readymade for the seaside.
“We are always trying to make music that confronts the world of today, and for us, that means emphasising liveness and the human quality of our music,” adds Mee. That’s a message we can get on board with and one you can receive straight from the horse’s mouth at the NME Stage.
Chanpan
Don’t forget your dancing shoes for Chanpan, whose woozy, uptempo alt-pop also refuses to sit still. Look at the way 2025 single ‘Endlessly’ seamlessly flows from lightweight drum’n’bass to indie-pop and jazz, all while Grace Dumdaw’s ethereal vocals don’t break stride once. Unsurprisingly, the song has racked up millions of TikTok views, plus unexpected acclaim from Korean boyband P1Harmony – and yet it barely scratches the surface of the NYC trio’s sound.
“Our sound is an amalgamation of all the different things that we love hearing everyday in our lives, as three different people,” they tell NME in a joint statement. “There’s drum’n’bass, dance, bossa nova, jazz, rock. A little bit of something for everybody.” Latest single ‘Buzzin’ is also gloriously colourful, channelling the cheekiness of NYC peers Fcukers before the chorus explodes into a seductive dance-punk hook: “I want to be your addiction”.
Chanpan’s first overseas shows will conclude with a performance on the NME Stage, and the question of how their overstimulating sound will unfold in the gig room is intriguing, especially when sandwiched between guitar-based acts. “It will get loud,” they promise, eager to rise to the challenge of a Friday-night Brighton crowd. “Expect to have a lot of fun and learn to sing.”
Girl Scout
Hot off the heels of an appearance on The Cover, the Stockholm trio’s victory lap for debut album ‘Brink’ is rolling into Brighton. Initially catching NME’s attention in 2023, Girl Scout have spent the past three years coming of age alongside their confessional indie-rock. Planting checkpoints as twenty-somethings manoeuvring through life, 2023’s ‘Granny Music’ EP demonstrated the candour in their songwriting, while 2024 follow-up ‘Headache’ brought garage-rock bite.
They tied these threads together on ‘Brink’, which leaves the band armed with a potent, versatile live show. “We’ve heard people compare us to Snail Mail, Alvvays, and The Breeders, so do with that what you will,” teases frontwoman Emma Jansson. Also springing to mind are Florence Road and Momma, who both played The Great Escape on the cusp of their breakout moment – a trajectory that Girl Scout look set to follow.
From their jazz roots through to ‘Brink’, Girl Scout’s sound has always existed in a constant state of flux. Expect to escape into the new-wave rock of ‘Dead Dog’ and ‘Same Kids’, kickstart a moshpit for ‘I Just Needed You To Know’, and immerse yourself in the unpredictable world of one of Sweden’s most exciting new guitar bands.
Mandy, Indiana
You’ll need an oxygen tank for Mandy, Indiana’s set, they warn NME: “We are doing a special ‘underwater’ performance, where the band will try to hold their breath for the entire 45 minutes.” Laugh all you want, but the quartet’s brash noise-rock will leave you gasping for air once they’re done tearing down the NME Stage. As they told us in their interview for The Cover: “When you come to see us, you’re being sort of thrown around.”
The English-French group sing in both languages; highlights from February’s second album ‘Urgh’ include driving techno cut ‘Cursive’ and spiky protest song ‘Ist Halt So’. Hope is a key takeaway from their rage-fuelled chaos, with frontwoman Valentine Caulfield dispensing affirmations like “l’avenir nous appartient et notre humanité” (“the future belongs to us and our humanity”).
With a twisted, underground edge that differentiates them from other buzzy noiseniks like Chalk and Maruja, Mandy, Indiana will suitably match the moment when the South Coast sunshine turns to darkness. As they take their fight into the night, prepare for a body-shaking experience of “music for the spine, for the feet [and] full of bass tone.”
Doors open for the NME Stage at The Old Market at 7pm on Friday, May 15. Get your festival tickets to The Great Escape here