The U.K.’s 2019 Great Escape fest will focus on Australia
England, brace yourself. The Aussies are in full force and they’re heading to the beach for The Great Escape.
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Tropical Fuck Storm and Body Type are among the homegrown contingent selected to represent at next year’s The Great Escape in Brighton, England, where Australia will be the focus country. They’ll join Allysha Joy, Cable Ties, Emerson Snowe, Jeffe, Pagan, Sons of the East, Skyned and others.
The Great Escape, set up in 2006, has cemented its position as the U.K.’s leading showcase event, some 80kms down the M23 from London. For the first time, the spotlight falls on Australian acts who’ve a long, solid history rocking the joint.
Over the past decade, Angus & Julia Stone, Bag Raiders, Confidence Man, Courtney Barnett, Cub Sport, DMA’S, Dune Rats, DZ Deathrays, Emma Louise, Gang Of Youths and many more have won fans at the three-day annual fest.
Tropical Fuck Storm
Sounds Australia has worked working closely with The Great Escape from the very start. And thanks to that special, decade-long relationship, next year’s show will have a strong Aussie flavour. Explains Lyndsey Boggis, General Manager at The Great Escape, “this year we are taking our longstanding and valued partnership one step further again and celebrating Australia as our lead international partner for 2019.”
Sounds Australia’s famed Aussie BBQ will return once more at Brighton Beach, with 2014 Australian Music Prize winner Remi confirmed to perform. Also, the Sound Gallery is coming back to Komedia and Sounds Australia will host its luncheon in partnership with the High Commission of Australia in London at Brighton’s Chilli Pickle.
Year on year, Boggis adds, “we have been gifted with the very best musical talent coming from a country so rich, vibrant and diverse of a culture. We are very much looking forward to another year of incredible Aussie talent joining us in Brighton and help push the development of Australian artists into the U.K. market and our international delegates.”
In a statement, Millie Millgate, Executive Producer at Sounds Australia, pays tribute to the impact the festival has had for “countless Australian artists and music businesses in the last decade.” The Great Escape has “been the vehicle from which Australian artists have secured deals, garnered media attention and converted new audiences,” she says, “and we believe the Australian focus in 2019 will continue to deliver these career-building outcomes.”
The Great Escape has a deeper Aussie connection. Its co-founder Martin Elbourne, the Glastonbury Festival booker and “live music thinker,” published a report in 2013 on the “future of live music in South Australia,” the findings of which still resonating.
The party started early, with Emerson Snowe, Jeffe and SKYND featuring in The Great Escape’s “First Fifty” run of show across London this week. An official launch will be held at Australia House in London next April, ahead of the May 9-11 fest.
Read on.
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.