The Great Escape announce first wave of artists for 2025 line-up

13 November, 2024

The Great Escape

The Great Escape has announced the first wave of artists for its 2025 line-up, including CATTY, Miss Kaninna and Luvcat.

The festival, held annually at Brighton and Hove, revealed the list earlier today (November 13). Its 2025 edition will be held from May 14 to 17.

Also among the 50 names are jazz group corto.alto, worldbeat up-and-comers Sirens Of Lesbos, indie rock band Laundromat Chicks, R&B singer RUBII and fast-rising duo Disgusting Sisters. Early bird tickets are available here.

The full line-up will comprise “450 artists across 35+ venues”, the festival added in a press release.

This year’s edition of The Great Escape was rife with controversy – it was noted that the festival was sponsored by Barclays, which has had financial investment in companies involved with over 40,000 lives having been lost in Gaza since the conflict escalated last year when Hamas committed the October 7 attacks. In response, the bank claimed it is “trading in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand”.

The issue was first highlighted in a petition started by the promoter How To Catch A Pig and the band The Menstrual Cramps – which was signed by musicians including Kneecap, Lambrini Girls, Alfie Templeman, Lip Critic, Wunderhorse and Mary In The Junkyard.

Luvcat, photo by press
Luvcat. Credit: Press

After over 125 artists boycotted the event – and after over 1,200 artists, including IDLES, Squid and Massive Attack, signed an open letter addressed to The Great Escape – it was confirmed last month (October 6) that the bank has pulled out of the festival sponsorship.

Others, like Big Special, played this year but donated their fee to a Palestinian charity, while Kneecap played but have consistently expressed their support for Palestine. Member Móglai Bap told NME in June, “If your income depends on this life and you’re a touring band, then everything’s connected to one of these companies in some way. Ideally, if we had the money, we’d just boycott everything and sit in the house and tweet all day.”

However, punk band Joe & The Shitboys also accused The Great Escape of “ethnocentric bullying” after the festival dropped the Faroe Islands as its lead country partner over concerns over its whaling practices.

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