VOCAL GIRLS X THE GREAT ESCAPE 2022: A DEEP DIVE
If you haven’t already heard, VOCAL GIRLS are partnering with The Great Escape Festival 2022: a festival for new music based in Brighton that runs from the 11th-14th of May and boasts some of the most exciting upcoming artists in the country. The infamous weekender showcases 500 emerging artists across 30+ walkable venues all over the city, the cherry on top being the pop-up festival site on Brighton beach.
This year, VOCAL GIRLS have joined forces with The Great Escape team to bring you our very own stage at the main weekend, as well as a collaborative podcast in which our founder Megan Graye had the chance to speak to Sinead O’Brien, ENNY, Lola Young and Rachel Chinouriri. All of these incredible artists will be performing over The Great Escape weekend, and their podcast episodes are still available to listen to here. On top of this, VOCAL GIRLS will also be hosting our very own stage on Friday 13th May at Zahara Brighton, which will be running from 12pm-4pm. Our lineup consists of some of the team’s current favourites: Fräulein, Peaness and Human Interest, before finishing the venture off with the sweet sounds of Molly Payton. Both Molly Payton and Human Interest played at our event at The Shacklewell Arms in February; Fräulein and Peaness, however, will be joining us for the first time.
The Great Escape begins (informally) via ‘The Road to The Great Escape’, a string of shows that’ll be touching down in Glasgow on the 6th-7th May, and in Dublin on the 9th-10th May. With sets from the likes of High School, Baby Queen, Honeyglaze, Priya Ragu and Sprints appearing across the two cities, these warm-up shows will give an exciting taste of the full Brighton takeover. Some of these acts are featured in both the Glasgow and the Dublin lineup, and all will be featured at the main weekend in Brighton. You can find out more about who will be in your city and when here.
Officially kicking off on the 11th May, The Great Escape has arrived this year with a lineup that is host to names both familiar and fresh. Thursday 12th brings performances from Yard Act, the entrancing Sinead O’Brien (whose podcast episode with us you can listen to here), the ever-wild Enola Gay, and a range of other exciting artists all at different stages of their careers.
Friday 13th offers an equally as impressive list of sets: Lime Garden, Fräulein, Indigo de Souza, Opus Kink, Lynks, and Prima Queen are just a few of the names who will be gracing the stages. Finally, 14th May won’t fall short in the wake of two monumental days and a pre-festival week of preparatory gigs: Saturday at The Great Escape will have you serenaded by the likes of Pixey, Katy J Pearson, Pretty Sick, Swim School and Crows. In fact, Pixey is also the lovely headliner for our summer party gig at The Windmill in Brixton this June.
On top of the three days of sets, The Great Escape will also be running two standalone Spotlight Shows. On Friday 13th May at Brighton Dome Concert Hall, a Spotlight Show hosted by The Face will take over, headlined by Tems with support from Gabriels and Enny (whose VOCAL GIRLS podcast episode can be listened to here). The second Spotlight Show is hosted by TikTok at Concorde2 and will showcase ArrDee, Dréya Mac, Piri & Tommy and Cassyette.
Of course, because this is The Great Escape, this short but impressive list barely even scratches the surface of the quantity of new music that will be available over the weekend. To have a listen to some of the tracks we’re most excited to hear over the weekend, you can listen to our VGC x TGE playlist. If by now you aren’t either buzzing with excitement for a weekend of music or scrambling to buy a ticket, then I’m not sure what to tell you. The Great Escape 2022 is promising a good time, good music, and heaps of good content - a portion of which VOCAL GIRLS is more than happy to share.
Take a sift through the full lineup here, buy tickets here, and download The Great Escape app here, where you can plan your weekend.
