Category: Festival

Latitude Festival, Suffolk, 23rd – 26th July 2026

For the major part of this year’s Latitude, Henham Park was bathed in relentless, baking sunshine, while the line-up proved every bit as hot as the weather. With world-class performances, hidden woodland gems and a summer party atmosphere, Latitude once again reminded everyone why it remains one of the UK’s most distinctive festivals.

On the main Obelisk Arena stage, Friday belonged to David Byrne. The former Talking Heads frontman delivered a masterclass in live performance, his trademark choreography as sharp and inventive as ever, perfectly complementing a set packed with classics. Psycho Killer and And She Was were suitably infectious, while a beautifully delivered Heaven provided another special moment.

Saturday saw Billy Ocean draw one of the biggest and happiest crowds of the weekend. From the opening notes, it became one giant singalong as everyone on and off stage belted out timeless hits including Red Light Spells Danger and Suddenly. It was a reminder that great songs transcend generations, with festival-goers of every age joining in from start to finish.

But Latitude’s magic has always extended far beyond its headline stages. One of the most enchanting performances came from Jacob Alon, whose set on the picturesque Waterfront Stage, surrounded by the festival’s famous lake complete with gondola weaving up and down, felt almost surreal. Alon’s music blends folk, indie and alternative influences, with a distinctive falsetto voice that has made them one of Scotland’s most acclaimed emerging artists.

Speaking of acclaimed Scottish artists, deep in the woods, there was more mastery from north of the border. The Sunrise Arena was bursting at the seams as VLURE crammed the tent, their intoxicating blend of searing electronic dance beats, visceral energy and sheer intensity creating surely one of the most exhilarating sets of the weekend, leaving many wondering why they weren’t playing an even bigger stage.

Meanwhile, over at The Listening Post, Dr John Cooper Clarke demonstrated exactly why he remains one of the UK’s finest performance poets. Slick, razor-sharp and effortlessly funny, his established deadpan delivery had audiences hanging on every word before erupting into laughter.

Elsewhere across the weekend, the depth of Latitude’s line-up ensured there was always something worth discovering. Indie favourites The Last Dinner Party drew a huge audience with their theatrical flair, while Tom Grennan brought crowd-pleasing anthems. Dry Cleaning’s art-rock cool provided a striking contrast to the more mainstream acts, and Jalen Ngonda’s soulful performance was another standout. New to the table, the many members and dancers with Biird had lots of people talking about them – it will be interesting to see how things progress with their traditional with a twist offering.

Sunday brought a little cloud and the odd light shower, offering a welcome respite from the heat rather than dampening the festival spirit (not sure we’ve ever heard people actively hoping for rain at a festival before!), and provided a fitting finale to Latitude’s 20th anniversary celebrations with Lewis Capaldi, Self  Esteem, The Undertones, Flaming Lips and Saint Etienne amongst others.

Away from the music, Latitude excels in creating a festival experience that feels welcoming rather than overwhelming. The host of independent food traders once again offered an impressive range of high-quality options, catering for every taste without relying on the predictable festival staples. The site itself was remarkably clean and tidy throughout, no small achievement given the crowds and the dust infused weather.

Thanks to everyone involved for a great few days.

Latitude Festival – sponsored by Klarna

Review and photos by Callum and Siobhan

Published 30th July 2026 

 

 

 

Madness at On The Beach Festival, Brighton, 23rd July 2026

Brighton’s On The Beach Festival in fusion with Camden’s nutty boys, Madness, brought two sold out nights of Madrophenia to the seaside last week. Sunshine, bold staging, much dancing and a setlist full of classics made for a most enjoyable summer’s evening. Before the main event, some inspired support acts graced the stage – Thursday saw The Selecter, The Blockheads, Craig Charles, The Beatles Dub Club and Henry WP warm the crowd up throughout the day.

The Selecter

There really couldn’t have been a better setting for Madness than Brighton Beach. With the sea as a backdrop and thousands of fans packed onto the seafront, Madrophenia felt like a huge celebration of one of Britain’s most-loved acts.

From the opening notes of One Step Beyond, they delivered hit after hit, from Our House to Baggy Trousers via Bed and Breakfast Man and Mr Apples along the way. And no Madness show would be complete without a serving of their trademark humour and anecdotes, Suggs noted “the problems we’re having with boats” having spotted a small flotilla that had anchored just offshore to enjoy the concert for free, adding that someone should get out there and charge them a fiver each. There was also a light-hearted dig at Brighton & Hove Council for trying to take over Peacehaven, which resonated with the locals – particularly those from the outskirts of the city. Then a change of mood as Suggs beckoned everyone to sing the chorus of It Must Be Love back to him, highlighting the emotional connection between the band, their songs and their fan base.

Watching the sun go down over Brighton while surrounded by a sea of fans dancing, singing and having heaps of fun created a brilliant festival atmosphere, with the audience littered with fezzes and pork pie hats. This wasn’t just a concert; it felt like one giant party, with the crowd bouncing from start to finish, closing with fan favourite Night Bost to Cairo.

Madrophenia delivered everything the band’s long-standing and newer fans could have hoped for with the blend of classic tunes and camaraderie that Madness provide, proving that more than four decades on, they’re still one of the best live acts in the UK.

Madness

Sign up here to be the first to get info about On The Beach 2027

Review & Photos by Callum & Siobhan

Published 25th July 2026

The Great Escape, multi-venue across Brighton, 13th – 16th May 2026

Largely blessed with sunshine despite forecasts of rain all week, this year’s Great Escape pulled off another masterclass in programming a massive event over the duration of the four-day festival’s 20th anniversary. Hundreds of artists from around the world, an abundance of venues, and music from all genres offered up something for everyone. True to its tagline The Festival for New Music, there was plenty to explore and some new favourite acts to discover in every corner.

We started Wednesday evening with the range of local talent being promoted on the BBC Introducing stage at Concorde 2; Winter Gardens up first. The band seem to continually refine their fusion of gothic shoegaze, and manage to create the same ambience whatever size stage they’re on. It was a solid start to proceedings and we stayed on for the next act, Gilska, who blended alt-pop with modulated synth breaks with ease.

top: Winter Gardens, bottom: Gilska

Time for a quick wander along the seafront to check out the layout for The Beach stages – and just in time because as we were leaving the area was already operating a one-out one-in policy, largely down to the huge queues for the Canadian disguised duo of Angine de Poitrine. We were headed to a packed Daltons for a hip hop – grime – metal mash up perfectly executed by Native James, who somehow got a circle pit going where there surely wasn’t enough room to do so!

Native James

The draw back to Concorde was driven by Lemonsuckr, definitely on the must-see list for a lot of festival-goers, this seemed like our best chance of catching them as their other pending sets were in much smaller venues. Despite the hype, they didn’t disappoint, with an immersive show from the outset. The formula is well established by the likes of Deadletter and Gurriers, but the five-piece manage to add a quirky confidence-filled touch that elevates their spiky post-punk offering into something fresh. It won’t be a surprise to see them taking on bigger headline slots over the coming year.

Lemonsuckr

Onto fuller days and a wonderfully impressive performance to kick off Thursday from Aimée Fatale on The Beach Soundwaves stage, with echoes of Dusty Springfield / Nancy Sinatra and a strong 60s’ vibe and styling. It’s clear from her online fanbase that Aimée is grabbing attention for all the right reasons – her delivery is smooth, her songs are well put together, and there’s a speakeasy atmosphere to boot. Final song, The Way It Is, is something quite special. Will see again.

Aimée Fatale

A couple more acts at The Beach before heading into the city – Marina Josephina caused us to stop off at The Jetty stage to take a listen to her jazz-tinged vocals, then back to Soundwaves for a switch up to some indie rock tunes from Ireland’s Black Nylon. And all of this before lunch…

top: Marina Josephina, bottom: Black Nylon

The afternoon took in a trip to the Canada House showcase. Micah Sage gave us some fine alt-pop along with a ‘Favourite Ex-Girlfriend’ sash presented to – well, her favourite ex-girlfriend. Following on, Featurette turned up the volume and turned down the lights for jagged electronics overlaid with powerful vocals. An impressive mix of different styles and genres, which continued the next day with an energetic and engaging set from Vera Daisies, nodding towards indie/grunge but also adding in some lighter elements and interesting attempts at bi-lingual conversations by the crowd – let’s just say her English was better than their French!

top left: Micah Sage, top right: Featurette, bottom: Vera Daisies

The evening saw some big queues joining up between neighbouring venues at Waterbear Music Bar for Walt Disco, followed by Pigeon at Charles St Tap. For those lucky enough to make it inside, Walt Disco in their latest evolution were beset with technical issues which ultimately cut their set short. However, the songs they managed to squeeze in were well received, with latest single Coup de Foudre probably getting the biggest reaction. To say there was a queue for Pigeon is something of an understatement as, where the pavement ran out on one side, there was actually a second line formed across the road. Missing the first 10 minutes of their slot didn’t take away from the quality of what came next. Bags of energy and clap-alongs ensued, their afro-funk beats grabbing the crowd by the hand and insisting it danced along. One of the stand out shows of the week for sure.

Walt Disco

Pigeon

Over at Patterns, Annie-Claude Deschênes was making the most of the club speakers for her dystopian disco party. Whilst a chunk of the crowd may not really have known what to expect, the whole room seemed to be having a good time, resulting in the only stage invasion we witnessed.

Back at Charles St Tap, The Orielles packed the venue. Still with their original line-up, they don’t look old enough to have been around as long as they have but, given they were barely into their teens when they formed that does add up. While they’ve overhauled their sound and it’s definitely less poppy than before, it’s good to see them still in their element and as in sync as ever. Another artist who hit success in their teens, Australia’s Ruel is now one of their biggest names in pop and proved popular with the late night crowd at Brighthelm.

Ruel

Some highlights from the seafront venues on Friday included the long walk down the pier to Horatio’s to catch Marsy’s mix of indie-folk songs. Their music was easily enjoyable and entwined with pop sensibilities and delicate melodies. They were followed by Y, fusing together different genres and previous band influences. Complete with shades and an air of intentional chaos, ‘experimental’ is clearly high in their vocabulary.

Always good to finish up with some thumping electronic beats; veering almost to trip-hop in their newer material, PVA have been stalwarts of the dance/rave scene for the best part of 10 years now and seem comfortable in their skins as festival-pleasers. Certainly regulars on the Brighton events calendar, it’s fitting to have them here this week.

So there we have it, another year done and dusted, a hive of activity all across the city, lots of connections made, and a plethora of new music names introduced to us and many others. We’ll be checking in with some of the artists we saw at TGE over the coming months, so keep an eye out for that…

You can find photos from Peaches’ spotlight show at TGE by Mike Burnell here

Limited super early bird tickets for next year’s Great Escape are available now on this link

Review by Callum & Siobhan
Photos by Siobhan – 16beasleystphotography.com | Instagram: 16beasleyst

Published 18th May 2026

Homegrown Festival, multi-venue across Brighton, 11th April 2026

Back for its third year to celebrate Brighton’s thriving grassroots artists, venues and community, Homegrown Festival took in 9 of the city’s favourite live rooms and offered up an eclectic mix of talent to choose from. With busy queuing for wristbands and the threat of rain, it was a trepidatious start that quickly picked up pace as the music kicked off.

First on my list were SoftTop at Daltons – their ‘soft music for soft people’ was the perfect way to start the day and proved enough to bring the sunshine out as well. A multitude of not seen often enough instruments including clarinet, cello and flute filled the stage, with understated melodies still managing to pack a punch. Shout out to Daltons too – a venue putting heaps of effort into building a welcoming space for everyone.

SoftTop

************************************************************

Next, onto what feels like my home from home at The Hope & Ruin. Lots of buzz around My Precious Bunny, the new project by Lily from Penelope Isles and friends. Playing as a 7-piece, the camaraderie between band members was crystal clear and they sounded on point – a suitably dreamy and nostalgia-filled addition to the Bella Union roster. Their debut album A Moment In My Eyes is out next month with more dates pending if you want to check them out. 

My Precious Bunny

************************************************************

I stuck around at The Hope to catch The Daniel Wakeford Experience, a charming and enjoyable set filled with some cleverly formed rock-pop songs. Lots of singalongs from the crowd, unsurprisingly perhaps for his tribute to Brighton, Wonderful City. A stripped back cover of Jealous Guy was the highlight for me and I’d guess for the many swaying hands in the air too.

The Daniel Wakeford Experience

************************************************************

Onto another new venue that is a welcome addition to the local scene – Alphabet is situated in what was the Rialto Theatre and the decor has retained an appropriately retro Speakeasy feel. On stage, Cowboy Lyf played electronic beats through a sea of dried ice and dimmed lights, creating pockets of clubland dancers in the crowd – impressive for an early evening set.

Cowboy Lyf

************************************************************

Back up the road to The Albert for, as expected, an accomplished performance of gritty grunge-pop and fake blood from Girl Apocrypha, a happy late inclusion on the line-up. Including a guest book for everyone to sign and a cover of MGMT’s Kids, beneath the visual gimmickry there are some strong songs and vocals, and this act feels very much like a contender for the ‘ones to watch’ list.

Girl Apocrypha

************************************************************

Although there was much more music continuing into the night, the final visit for me was to Green Door to see AtticOmatic, a band whose musicianship is right up there and who manage to genre-hop seamlessly. Their skills are downplayed but obvious, and they manage to convey a solid sense of emotional questioning and balance. It would have been a tough act to follow and finished things off flawlessly.

AtticOmatic

************************************************************

A reminder of the diverse talent and nurturing environment Brighton has to offer, Homegrown put on a formidable showcase. Please support grassroots venues – the world of music would be significantly lesser without them and the breakthrough artists they foster.

Review & Photos by Siobhan O’Driscoll – 16beasleystphotography.com | Instagram: 16beasleyst

Published 13th April 2026