It has been confirmed that Stewart Lee will be curating a stage at the first edition of the Brighton Psych Fest.
Created by the minds behind the city’s leading independent promoter JOY and the team responsible for both Manchester Psych Fest and Edinburgh Psych Fest, a new Brighton edition of the music and arts festival will be headed to the UK coastal city later this summer.
Set to take place on August 30, the one-day event spans across some of the most iconic music venues in Brighton, and promises to be a celebration of all things psychedelic.
Already, two waves of acts have been announced for the 2024 debut, with artists including The Horrors, Holly Macve, NewDad, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, SCALER, bdrmm, Divorce, Molly Payton and more leading the way.
Now, the team behind the event have also confirmed that a new stage has been added – fully curated by comedian and music lover Stewart Lee. Hosted at Komedia, the stage will see performances from five artists who have been personally selected by Lee.
“Brighton Psych Fest asked me to host and program a stage, which is reckless of them as the last thing I curated, the 2016 Prestatyn All Tomorrow’s Parties, went bust. And no, I didn’t get paid either. Nonetheless, here’s a mind-melting day out of acid-hued action from five of my favourite acts, with minimal onstage interruptions from me,” he said of the collaboration.
He also added how he has turned his sights to local talent, with the hopes of having festival goers realise what talented musicians are rising in the area. “I’ve tried to skew the selection towards Brighton and Hastings talent,” he explained. “Because sometimes we don’t always acknowledge the geniuses on our own doorsteps.”
These acts include The Bevis Front – an English psychedelic rock band formed in 1986 and fronted by Nick Saloman – and The Physics House Band, a Brighton trio offering their own spin on instrumental prog-rock.
Multiinstrumentalist and former member of The Left Outsides, Alison Cotton, has also been selected to perform, as have ‘70s-inspired psychedelic singer Eliza Skelton and Seculted Bronte – a group who promote free improvisation and speech in their rock sound.
Tickets are available now for Brighton Psych Fest, and you can buy yours here.
Various editions of Psych Fest have been taking place across the country for over 10 years now, and back in 2015, the Liverpool edition of the festival was named as NME’s “Small Festival of the Year”.
“The success of Liverpool’s International Festival of Psychedelia represents a current national interest in a form of music that’s ambitious, exploratory and increasingly intelligent,” read a review at the time.