Sun, Seagulls, and Lots of Music

After SXSW, Iceland Airwaves, and The New Colossus, The Great Escape in Brighton was the fourth showcase festival we attended (or sixth if you count the defunct NYC events CMJ and Northside), and it might have been the best! For once, Brighton is a beautiful seaside city, and if you are as lucky with the weather as we were, you have a beach vacation included. While downtown Austin boasts its Western town charm, it cannot compare to the atmosphere of a beach resort with generations of seaside culture.. Behind glamorous grand hotels at the waterfront, narrow streets wind up with little shops, bars, and restaurants. Brighton has many venues for live shows, and like at SXSW, some are converted just for the festival, which adds a special atmosphere.

The Great Escape is much smaller than SXSW, but given the recent announcement, that may change – in fact, the Austin event may go for a similar, denser event with tighter programming rather than the 2,000+ acts they presented in the past. The Great Escape 2025 was excellently curated and conveyed the spirit of “new” music with many artists who are ready for the next level.

Elke and I took it easy this time and focused on connections instead of trying to see as many shows as possible. It was an opportunity to meet some artists and industry people from the UK and continental Europe in person. We had many meaningful conversations, and the networking events seemed to be more relaxed and open than those in the US. Of course, this is a subjective impression, as our goal was to also have a vacation and enjoy ourselves.

The best thing about all those festivals is the community of people who are genuinely interested in the music that new artists make today. People who are willing to stand in the dark basement of a club on a sunny day, curious to see what the person on stage has created.

This is what we want to do with glamglare: make you curious about all the great music that is put out into the world every day.

That love for music is also at the heart of the 2024 movie Dandelion. I don’t usually actively watch films on a plane, but the topic of a singer/songwriter (Kiki Layne), who struggles to find an audience, was a perfect fit to wind down from the festival. Much of the movie is an audiovisual feast, like a songwriting session on a mountaintop in South Dakota at sunrise. But most of all, the director Nicole Riegel, who co-wrote several songs together with the Dessner brothers of The National, wants to show the arduous inner journey of an artist without the lucky break and ascent to stardom that makes up the story of so many other music movies.

Song Pick of the Day

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• alphabet releases their live favorite "Your Everything" – a striking song with alternating vocals by singers Milo and Lena.
• Chloe Qisha dropped her second EP, Modern Romance, during The Great Escape in Brighton. The last track is the steamy “A Game.”
• The Danish sisters Simako created an epic song "Who you are" about "being incredibly close to someone, and still ending up as strangers."
• "That night still haunts me with the thought of what an idiot I was" - Amy Millan shares a story in her past in "The overpass."
• "Real Deal" is the opener of the 10th album Mad Equation by NYC singer/songwriter Janita, out now.
• In her airy new song “Spare Key,” London singer/songwriter Hazel Rose  moves on from a relationship without hard feelings. "It’s bittersweet, but I truly believe that if it’s meant to be, it will be," she says.
• The London band White Lies share a furious new track "Nothing on Me."

Nine Photos

Visiting a place for the first time offers endless opportunities to snap a photo. Here’s a selection of our first day impressions. Enjoy!

(1, 2 & 3) Arriving by train in Brighton, walking down the long promenade to our Art Deco destination, and settling into our rented apartment.
(4) View out into the streets of the official festival hub, the Royal Leonardo Hotel
(5) One of the ubiquitous seagulls is relaxing on our balcony.
(6) At the opening party at the beach.
(7) Dinner during sunset at our Brighton home.
(8) Walk on the pier.
(9) Lonnie Gunn at the Paganini Ballroom