What were you doing when you turned 20? Well, The Great Escape entered its third decade last week with a big party – one that saw some of the most exciting emerging acts around right now descend on Brighton and turn the seaside city into a buzzing musical paradise. Future stars have always been the order of the day at this festival, with the likes of Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Sam Fender and Wolf Alice all laying the foundations for later big moves down by the beach.
This year, NME got in on the action by presenting two stages: a packed opening weekend on Wednesday night at The Deep End and a stacked NME Stage at The Old Market on Friday. And when we weren’t doing that, we joined the masses dashing from venue to venue to catch the best of the bunch. Here are the top 10 things we saw this year…
Adult DVD
We’re here for a good time, not a long time, and there’s no better Friday night soundtrack for that mantra than the dance-punk of Leeds party-starting sextet Adult DVD – even as we stand on tippy-toes to peek inside the rammed tent. From the playful electro of ‘Dogs In The Sun’ to the industrial menace of ‘Real Tree Lee’ and the euphoric wig-out tribute to the screen icon ‘Bill Murray’, the Yorkshire lads sound like Working Men’s Club on a pinger or Fat Dog at the disco as they bring humour, hedonism and a heady performance worthy of the top shelf their name suggests. A proper must-see. Andrew Trendell
Angine de Poitrine
NME’s The Great Escape opening party was only ever going to be a banger. The line-up is stacked with the heavenward sounds of Irish/Cornish indie-folk upstarts Girl In The Year Above and Montreal grunge force Ribbon Skirt alone, before we even get to Angine de Poitrine, the most-hyped extraterrestrials to ever touch down in Brighton.
The golden sunset lashed with torrential rain outside matches Ribbon Skirt’s blend of pop-leaning desert rock with a dark gothic shadow. Shortly after they’ve left the stage, the Deep End tent bursts open for the papier-mâché-headed headliners, inciting moshpits and adulation for the viral spectacle of their microtonal madness. While AI slop may be on the rise, there’s something in the startling unpredictability and sheer musicality of these two polka-dotted aliens that feels essentially human. AT
Bathing Suits
Late night is when The Great Escape really comes alive, inhibitions loosened and everyone ready to have a good time as they pack into Brighton’s intimate venues. Bathing Suits are a band perfectly suited to that environment. Their brand of electro-punk holds nothing back and each song in their short set encourages you to cut a little looser, whether in the elastic bass of ‘Empathy’ or thumping, liberatory ode ‘I Can Be A Freak’. Throughout it all, singer Freyja Blevins is thrillingly unpredictable, climbing the venue’s low rafters one minute then catapulting herself into the crowd, around the room and back to her position at the front in the blink of an eye. You can’t pin Bathing Suits down, and nor should you want to. Rhian Daly
Ceebo & Friends
There’s always stiff competition on Friday night at The Great Escape – but those who make it to Komedia’s basement to see Ceebo and friends are richly rewarded. The south Londoner fittingly makes his entrance to Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ and kicks off a multifaceted showcase: of his easy charisma, his skills on the mic, and most importantly, his community, as Ciel, N4T, Ceesho and Chefbkay all get a look in.
Ceebo’s got an incredible ability to “flip effortlessly from turn-up bangers to entrancing introspection”, as we put it in the NME 100 of 2026, and for a finale, he takes us all to the rave with the summer-ready track ‘Mayday’, an unreleased collab with Saint Ludo that boasts a dance move that could set TikTok aflame. Karen Gwee
Gurriers
Despite not being an official TGE booking, one of the weekend’s biggest queue scrums comes courtesy of secret act Gurriers, who pop up at the pokey railway arch of Tide Beach Club to debut a clutch of incendiary new tracks from their as-yet-unannounced second LP. It’s a moment that’s a reflection of the fringe activity that takes place around the event each year, turning Brighton not just into a festival site, but a whole ecosystem of live performances.
Inside the venue, there’s sweat dripping off the walls and the sort of frenzied mosh pit that tastemaker festivals such as this rarely see. Why? Because the Dublin quintet’s new material sounds capital-E enormous. Frontman Dan Hoff spends half his time looming over the crowd like a feral preacher and half in their midst, getting in the throng. The cathartic, doomy ‘Nobody’s Coming To Save You’ already sounds like an anthem, while dance-punk punisher ‘Nothing Happens Twice’ has people shouting its chorus back before it’s even been released. Lisa Wright
KatzPascale
It’s hard to catch your breath during The Great Escape, but at Unitarian Church on Thursday night, KatzPascale offer the perfect respite from the hustle and bustle of the festival. Bathed in blue light, the duo – New Yorkers Sammi Katzmann and Jenna Pascale – deliver something atypical to the rest of the line-up. Crafted with a cello (Pascale), sax (Katzmann) and a bunch of pedals, their experimental neoclassical creations are layered and beautiful, practically demanding you to surrender yourself to them and immerse yourself in their world. Closer ‘Spill Your Time’ is particularly stunning, their soft vocals remaining a constant as their instrumental loops warp and weave around each other. RD
Madra Salach
Delivering an impassioned, snarling take on traditional Irish folk, Madra Salach aren’t your standard festival-friendly outfit. Theirs is a communal emotional exorcism in musical form; the sort of magnetic set that changes the weather in a room, turning it into a place where joy and pain are on equal footing. At an absolutely rammed Chalk on Thursday night, it feels like the moment when the Dublin sextet ascend from cult favourites to the industry’s next big tip. The ominous stomp of ‘Blue & Gold’ sounds punk-spirited and thrilling, while a closing ‘The Man Who Seeks Pleasure’ – helmed by Paul Banks’ gloriously unshackled, goosebump-inducing vocal – might well be the performance of the weekend. LW
Mên An Tol
The south Londoners reward those who trek 500m down Brighton Pier with a professional showing at Horatio’s. Their atmospheric, Smiths-meets-Sonic Youth wall of sound has folk and Britpop twists; the mandolin notably sits majestically in that mix. Bill Jefferson is a self-assured frontman, keeping chatter brief to gather more momentum. It builds to frantic closer and cathartic alt-rock juggernaut ‘NW1’. NME spots Fontaines D.C. drummer Tom Coll watching; his bandmate, Carlos O’Connell, wants to produce Mên An Tol’s debut album. If that’s indeed on the agenda, they should head into it with bucketloads of confidence, based on this masterful display. Rishi Shah
NME Stage: Any Young Mechanic, Chanpan, Girl Scout and Mandy, Indiana
What better way to celebrate 20 years of The Great Escape than with our very own NME Stage? Kicking off our Friday night at The Old Market are Adelaide five-piece Any Young Mechanic, whose indie folk yarns – complete with gentle violin and double bass – have the early crowd spellbound.
The vivacious Chanpan then take the energy up a notch, urging punters to dance to their infectious, omnivorous alt-pop – and throwing roses to a delighted crowd during the closing track ‘Buzzin’ (because it samples a rose toy, geddit?).
Then it’s onto Swedish indie rockers Girl Scout for a bracing showcase of their excellent, hooky debut album ‘Brink’, Emma Jansson on fine vocal form as she belts out cathartic cuts ‘Same Kids’ and ‘Dead Dog’.
The Old Market is well and truly full when Mandy, Indiana finally take the stage. Volumes surge and pulses race as they tear through new record ‘Urgh!’, Scott Fair’s ugly, industrial guitars slashing through Alex Macdougall’s relentless drums and Simon Catling’s alien synths. Valentine Caulfield is utterly riveting as she commands the stage, addresses the crowd on violence against women and commemorates Nakba Day in a statement of solidarity with Palestine before finally getting into the crowd to join the mosh pit. A powerful performance we won’t forget anytime soon. KG
Tooth
Tooth play five sets this weekend, but nothing stops frontman Tom Pollock pushing his voice to the limit. This midnight set at Komedia captures the mayhem of four kids jumping from adolescence to a steadily chugging hype train. ‘The Age Of Innocence’ is their ‘Brianstorm’ or ‘All My Life’: it was tailor-made to open shows.
A classy Deftones touch greets the urgency on ‘Restless In Bloom’. Though their studio sound is a battleground between emo, indie and grunge, none of that matters in Tooth’s feral live show. If they keep this animal untamed, they will fly. RS