Saturday Highlights at The Great Escape 2023

We have arrived on the last and final day of our recap articles of the great escape. With 3 hours of sleep and 50k steps deep.

The Saturday of the Brighton festival for new music was noticeably quieter for us than the rest of the days. Starting off the day with a Feats team Breakfast and a catch up. 

Following that we headed to our first gig of the day which was James Marriotte at Jubilee Square TGE’s free stage that was almost instantly filled with devoted fans. James’ show was a zestful lively performance. Delivering two unreleased songs while announcing that one of them will be out on the 9th of june. Ending the set with Sleeping On Trains which provided the ideal track to send the crowds into waves of mosh pits and bouncing. 

Photo Credit: Tom Ellis (TJEPhotos/FEATS)

While two of us indulged in the brilliance of the James Marriott set, the rest headed to Volks to see the Rap trio FrozeMode. The London based group started their set with their track Maybelline combining their different rap styles; the group’s debut single proved to be a fan favourite at the show. The set continued with FrozeMode performing their only other track that has been released, Simon Says, the track with it’s catchy hooks and clever lyricism set the mood for the crowd to be excited to hear what’s next to come, and FrozeMode did not disappoint. Showcasing a handful of unreleased tracks, and announcing their next single Stick That coming out June 19th. FrozeMode delivered an elating set to be remembered. 

Photo Credit: Louis Hitchcock (LouisHitchPhotos/FEATS)

After getting some pizzas and beers at Dead Wax, one of our favourite spots in Brighton, we decided to enjoy the sun and go for a little walk around. To our surprise we stumbled upon a little church with TGE’s barriers and people walking in, out of curiosity we decided to go and check out the performer and we were amazed by her beautiful vocals, her sweet personality and soul-touching lyrics. It was Sophie Jamison at the Unitarian Church. Her set took you on a journey to the darkest corners of your soul and made you see the beauty in them. Sophie was definitely one of my favourite pleasant surprises from the weekend. 

After sophie’s set ended I headed back to the flat to get changed and fix my makeup for my most anticipated gig of the weekend, the legendary Arlo Parks, Arlo started the set off with playing her opening track from her upcoming album My Soft Machine, the track Titled Bruiseless got the crowd waving and cheering from minute zero. With a set that saw the artist perform the already released 4 songs of the upcoming album, including a debut performance of Pegasus her collaboration with phoebe bridges that took the crowd to a cloud nine like place. 

 Photo credit: Alexandra Waespi

In a moment of connection with the crowd the artist expressed how grateful she feels to be able to headline the festival having performed at it as an up and coming performer herself five years ago. Alongside performing her newer songs, Arlo made sure to play all the fan favourites from Black Dog, to Eugene and Too Good. catering to the older fans with a performance of Sophie, one of her earliest work. Overall Arlo delivered a set that brought us to tears of happiness and a set that surely made her parents who were amongst the crowd proud. 

Wrapping up the festival in one of the smaller venues for a 1:30 am show from the duo Crashface. Their set provided the perfect release of energy performing songs from their latest album Prototype and the crowds went wild. With mosh pits starting from the get go.

Photo Credit: Sophie Bingham (DisplacedImages/FEATS)

Even the older more exhausted fans (me) felt the urge to headbang and dance the early hours of the day away. Ending the set with the fan favourite Molotov Smile, had the crowd chanting “I would die for you” until the last breath. 

This was our weekend in Brighton for one of our favourite festivals of the year. We laughed and we cried and we would do it all over again next year. 

Big love for all the bands we seen, fans we spoke to and people behind the scenes that have worked relentlessly for an unforgettable weekend.