BBC Music Partners With The Great Escape
- Published in News
The festival for new music, The Great Escape returns to Brighton 18-20 May 2017. With over 450 of the best upcoming international and local artists taking to the streets of the seaside town, the festival is a showcase of unique performances across 30 plus venues, including a 2017 Brighton Palace Pier takeover from punk-rockers Slaves.
BBC Music is the corporation’s strongest commitment to music in 30 years, comprising of new partnerships and ground-breaking music initiatives led by Director Bob Shennan. Now they have announced a major new partnership with The Great Escape (TGE). In its 12th year, the festival will take place on Thursday 18 May - Saturday 20 May in Brighton. In addition to its already longstanding relationship with BBC Music Introducing; BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 Music will join forces with TGE 2017 to further champion and promote upcoming artists across these channels.
As part of the new partnership, BBC Music will take over the Paganini Ballroom for a spectacular three-night musical showcase; BBC Radio 6 Music will showcase their Recommends strand on the Thursday night; BBC Music Introducing will host Friday night and BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction will take over on Saturday night.
Artists announced so far include folk-rock sensation Marika Hackman, who will be performing tracks from her highly anticipated upcoming album, post-punk, post-grunge Goat Girl, a teenage quartet who have been making noise with debut track 'Country Sleaze', and the vibrant collision of soul, electro and West-African funk known as Ibibio Sound Machine. More artists will be announced very soon.
As well as having a huge line-up over three nights, BBC Music will also be bringing down some of their top DJs to broadcast LIVE from the TGE Festival Hub in Jubilee Square: Radio 1’s Mistajam (Thurs 7pm-9pm) and 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne (Friday 10am-1pm) and Steve Lamacq (Thursday and Friday 4pm-7pm). Delegates will be able to come down to listen and catch some of the artists who will play live on these shows.
BBC Music will also be getting involved in the TGE 2017 Convention, two days of discussions and debates exploring hot topics in the industry such as music media, exporting music worldwide, royalties and the impact of drugs within the music business. BBC Music will be taking over the Old Courtroom for their BBC Music In Conversation series. Mary-Anne Hobbs will speak to Kojey Radical, while Tom Robinson will share some insights with John Grant and Huw Stephens will also be speaking with a very special guest performing at the festival. These 'In Conversations' will be open to all delegates and festival goers.
The BBC Music News team will be out on the streets of Brighton and across the TGE venues, soaking up the atmosphere, chatting to artists and picking up all the latest news across the thought-provoking topics at the convention and reporting on what’s hot and what’s not.
James Stirling, BBC Music Editor, says; “BBC Music is dedicated to discovering and nurturing new British artists and The Great Escape is one of the best festivals to do this on the UK music scene. I'm very happy to be bringing TGE to life for our audiences across Radio 1, Radio 3, 6 Music, BBC Music Introducing and our digital platforms.”
Kevin Moore, The Great Escape’s Event Manager, says: “The announcement of this extended BBC Music partnership is great news for TGE - together we share a commitment to discover and nurture new music and we can’t wait to share our ideas and see this collaboration grow. As we approach our 12th year it’s important that we work with broadcast partners who share our vision and BBC Music do just that - which makes them a perfect partner for the festival.”
