Today, The Great Escape announces the line-up for the highly anticipated FIRST FIFTY live launch, showcasing a selection of up-and-coming first fifty artists set to play the Brightonfestival in May 2023. Following The Great Escape’s phenomenal return to the festival calendar in 2022, theFIRST FIFTY live launch will host gigs across eight East London venues. Taking place on 15th November 2022, the FIRST FIFTY live launch will showcase some of the world’s most exciting emerging acts ahead of their festival appearances next year. Tickets for each FIRST FIFTY gig start from £7 and are available to purchase here.

Synonymous with new music discovery and acting as a springboard for rising artists, The Great Escape is thefestival for new music. Playing host to more than 450 up-and-coming artists and hotly tipped talent across 35+ walkable venues, alongside the music industry-led TGE conference, the festival will kick off the 2023 festival season from 10 - 13th May 2023 in Brighton, England. Tickets for The Great Escape festival start from £70 and are on sale here.

THE GREAT ESCAPE FIRST FIFTY SHOWS

TUESDAY 15TH NOVEMBER

Taking place across eight East London venues, the FIRST FIFTY live launch is partnering with LICKS Magazine, DIY, Ticketmaster New Music, Notion, BBC Introducing, Dork, and Upset to present performances from the freshest new talent on the scene on Tuesday 15th November.

LICKS Magazine is set to take up residency for the FIRST FIFTY live launch at Hackney Social with Scottish noisemakers Redolent, Perth-based nu-funk outfit LUCI, and the shimmering UK duo Girls Of The Internet.

DIY will host an exciting evening of new music at Moth Club with the ethereal sounds of six-piece The Dinner Party, dream-pop innovators She’s In Parties and the fast-rising Irish singer-songwriter Nell Mescal.

The doors of Hackney’s OSLO will open to new music fans in partnership with Ticketmaster New Music, showcasing hotly tipped Brighton rockers The Heavy Heavy, the fresh, funky alt-pop of Artemas and the blissful surf-pop of Wales natives Melin Melyn. The partnership continues with a second show at Folklorewith TikTok sensation Áine Deane, bedroom-pop star Sarah Kinsley and the Italy-via-London genre-fluid San Soucis.

Notion will take over the Sebright Arms to showcase dancefloor multihyphenate Grove, Jessica Winter’s gothic-flecked pop, psych-influenced Liverpool upstarter Mickey Callisto and MEYY’s spectral R&B.

BBC Introducing will present an eclectic mix of up-and-coming artists at Paper Dress Vintage with Seraphina Simone’s confessional pop, spellbinding dark grit-pop from Bambie Thug and the tongue-in-cheek post punk of Shelf Lives.

Dork will be at The Shacklewell Arms to host performances from hip-hop’s rising stars Joey Valence & Brae, NY electro-punk embracers LIP CRITIC and London’s multi-instrumentalist Deyaz.

Upset will welcome some heavy riffs and licks from performances by the punk-laced doom rock of Witch Fever, Y2K influencer turned grunge heroine Lozeak and the fierce, energetic Alienblaze at The Victoria in Dalston.

THE GREAT ESCAPE CONFERENCE

The Great Escape has also revealed the core strands for its acclaimed conference which will run 10 - 13 May 2023 at the Jury’s Inn Brighton Waterfront hotel. Partnering with CMU, the conference will focus on a different aspect of the music industry each day, with Wednesday 10th May looking at Music + Education, Thursday 11th May focusing on Music + Deals and Friday 12th May giving an overview of Music + The Creator Economy.

WEDNESDAY 10th MAY – MUSIC + EDUCATION

CMU and The Great Escape will once again bring together music educators and the music industry to put the spotlight on the best ways to support future music talent, both on-stage and behind the scenes. They will ask questions ranging from the role of educators, career sustainability, building and maintaining supportive frameworks, identifying platforms to elevate educational systems and looking to the future of industry leaders.

Key conversations will include:

• What knowledge and skills do people need to build a fulfilling career in the music industry?
• What does music business education look like in 2023?
• How will the new national plan for music education in England impact on the way music is taught in and around schools?
• What new learning methods and platforms online are educating and inspiring the next generation of music industry talent?

THURSDAY 11th MAY – MUSIC + DEALS

CMU and The Great Escape review how deals are being done in the music business today. The conference day will shine a spotlight on deal-making between artists and their business partners, the evolution of deals over history and the impact of novel technologies on deciding deal viability.

Key conversations will include:

• What are the options for artists when choosing business partners to work with to build businesses and develop revenue streams around their recordings, songs, shows, merchandise and fanbase?
• When it comes to artist deals, what are current industry conventions and how do those differ from country to country?
• How do the industry's deals with different digital platforms compare - and how do those deals work? And how does that impact on how artists and songwriters get paid?
• How do record labels, music publishers and collecting societies interact with technology companies that are developing brand new business models - and how can the industry get better and faster at capitalising on new opportunities?
• How can the industry get more from the brand partnership opportunity?

FRIDAY 12th MAY – MUSIC + THE CREATOR ECONOMY

CMU and The Great Escape will put the spotlight on the wider creator economy. It will dissect and highlight the expanding armoury of tools, platforms and marketplaces that enable us to write, record and share music. It will touch on generating income, the details of the creator economy and growing fanbases through multi-platform strategies.

Key conversations will include:

• How are music-makers utilising digital tools, platforms and communities - including the marketplaces for beats, stems and samples - to build their businesses, streamline their creative processes, and generate new revenues?
• For frontline artists, how can these tools be used to grow the fanbase and enhance the fan relationship, and in doing so generate new revenue streams?
• How are music-makers using these platforms to build brands within the music community, and to find and facilitate collaborations, commissions and revenue-generating opportunities?
• What can the music community learn from the wider world of online creators? How are YouTube and TikTok creators, podcasters and gamers evolving their businesses? How are they using memberships, merch sales, digital gifting and brand collaborations to generate new income around their content, and how can this inform the businesses of music-makers?

2023 LEAD COUNTRY PARTNER - ITALY

In addition, Italy has been announced as The Great Escape’s Lead Country Partner for 2023. The festival host two special Italian showcases across the three days of music, presenting some of the best upcoming artists the country has to offer as well as a networking reception, all coordinated by the music export officeItalia Music Export.

Nur Al Habash, Italia Music Export commented “ We're really happy and excited to have Italy as the lead country at The Great Escape 2023. We've been working on exporting Italian music since 2018 and have already achieved great exposure for our artists. We've been experiencing a renewed interest in our music scene (perhaps this has something to do with Måneskin becoming world famous, I suppose!) so we hope TGE23 will be a great occasion for British music professionals to discover some up-and-coming artists from Italy.”