The Great Escape

We’re back at The Great Escape festival with our own Selector Radio stage showcasing the finest UK talent to a huge audience including delegates from around the world.

Man with short hair pulling a hoodie up around his chin.

Saxophonist corto.alto. Credit: Michal Augustini

The Great Escape

We’re back at The Great Escape festival, 'the UK’s most exciting and eclectic new music festival' (NME) and 'the best place in Europe to discover new bands’ (The Times).

We're hosting our Selector Radio stage at the fabulous Fabrica venue featuring four phenomenal UK artists as part our Selector Sessions series. We’re also bringing a group of music industry delegates from around the world to soak up UK music for themselves and make connections with the UK music industry.

Meet The Great Escape delegates

The Great Escape 2026 - British Council Delegates.pdf

Selector Sessions at The Great Escape

Selector Radio is our weekly radio show that goes out around the world to millions of listeners each week and has been doing so since 2001. Selector’s weekly host, and Radio 1 DJ, Sian Eleri, will be hosting the Selector stage at The Great Escape as these fantastic UK acts perform at the inspiring Fabrica venue – a former church – on 15 May 2026.

KuleeAngee
Eaves Wilder
Morn
Dolder

If you can’t make it there on the day, we will bring you highlights on our upcoming Selector Radio shows and YouTube channel so you won’t miss out, wherever you are in the world.

Image below, clockwise from top left: Dolder, KuleeAngee, Eaves Wilder and Morn.

'The Cannes of the music world'

The Great Escape is the renowned UK music festival that BBC DJ Steve Lamacq calls 'the Cannes of the music world'. It's hosted in Brighton on the south coast of England each year – ready to bring 450 emerging acts to the attention of crowds, packed with music industry figures and fans, around the city. Brighton will be awash with new music in venues from 13-16 March 2026 and there will be a pop-up festival site on Brighton Beach itself. There’s also The Alternative Escape, which offers emerging local artists an opportunity to reach new crowds, and, if the days themselves are not long enough to discover ‘the next big thing’, there are secret gigs, club nights and spontaneous collaborations that keep the music going, deep into the wee small hours.

2026 is a special year for The Great Escape as it celebrates its 20th birthday. Here at the British Council, we've been at the festival for many of those years, inviting guests from the music industry all around the world, and watching it grow up!