Festival Preview: Ten Must See Acts @ The Great Escape 2023

The Great Escape, various venues across Brighton (10-13 May 2023) // Words: Saam Das

We’ve been fans of The Great Escape festival since attending its inaugural edition in 2006, and it's become an important part of the UK music festival calendar ever since. Largely eschewing huge artists, Brighton's sprawling multi-venue festival has its eyes firmly on “the next big thing”, and in conjunction with its industry-led events, has attracted comparisons to Austin’s South By South West. The likes of Adele, Bastille and Haim have all played early gigs at the festival, and here we have ten acts that we hope may reach similar heights in future:

Preview: A Silent Disco On Tower Bridge And Other Musical Highlights At London's Emerge Festival

Emerge Festival (Various venues across London, 27-28 September 2019) // Words: Saam Das

One wristband. Entry to multiple venues. Sound familiar? It's a model that's worked well for a whole host of UK music festivals such as The Great Escape and Dot To Dot, and the people behind Emerge Festival have decided to adapt and adopt the model across several of London's cultural attractions. There's still music but plenty more on offer across venues as diverse as The Cinema Museum and UK Parliament. We've collated some of the best musical bits of Emerge 2019 below.

Review: We Ate A Delicious Sunday Roast In A Burrito (And Saw Some Bands) At Citadel Festival 2019

Citadel Festival (14 July 2019, Gunnersbury Park) // Words: Saam Das

14th July 2019 will go down as a momentous day on these fair shores. Mainly because England snaffled the Cricket World Cup for the first time in the most dramatic of circumstances, on home turf no less. But West London's Citadel Festival played some part, with triumphant performances from several homegrown acts such as Friendly Fires and Bastille. And a Sunday roast in a wrap. Delicious.

Review: How We Relived The Early-Noughties With Busted And Feeder At Godiva Festival 2019

Godiva Festival (5-7 July 2019, Coventry) // Words: Saam Das

Headlined by The Levellers, Feeder, and Busted, Coventry's popular music festival Godiva courted controversy this year by increasing the cost of entry. To the princely sum of £2 a day. It didn't stop over 75,000 people attending the formerly free-of-charge extravaganza in the UK's 2021 City Of Culture. And we were one of the many, many happy customers.

Preview: Eight Of The Best Acts To See At Citadel Festival 2019

Citadel Festival (14 July 2019, London) // Words: Saam Das

14th July 2019. A notable day in the calendar. The F1 British Grand Prix. England-New Zealand in the Cricket World Cup final. Tennis legend Roger Federer versus the behemoth Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final. But perhaps best of all, the return of Citadel Festival to Gunnersbury Park in West London. Headlined by Catfish & The Bottlemen, we've put together a preview of Citadel 2019.

Festival Review: Connecting The Dots At Nottingham's Dot To Dot 2019

Dot To Dot Festival (26 May 2019 @ various venues across Nottingham) // Words: Saam Das

"So nice to see so many people, so early", notes BLOXX's frontwoman Ophelia Booth as the band open the Rock City main stage proceedings at the Nottingham edition of the three-city-pronged Dot To Dot, taking place over the late May Bank Holiday weekend. BLOXX's early appearance is a surprise to some, as this is a last minute schedule change. But it's a welcome surprise as the quartet blast through their spiky guitar pop, including recent single 'Headspace', which inspires sustained pogo-ing both onstage and from the audience.

Preview: Eight More Of The Best Value UK Music Festivals In 2019

Words: Saam Das

There's pretty much only one thing we love as much as celebrating the under-appreciated here at FADED GLAMOUR, and that's a bargain. Who doesn't love a bargain??? So fresh off our list of best value UK music festivals from earlier in the year, we've collated a few more festivals across the UK featuring great music at an affordable price. One of them's only £2 a day!

Festival Preview: Ten Brilliant Bands To See At The Great Escape 2019

Words: Saam Das

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Festival season is well under way in the UK, with the early May Bank Holiday seeing such great festivals as Liverpool Sound City, Leicester's Handmade, and Live At Leeds all rolled into one musical bonanza. Brighton's premier music festival The Great Escape is next on the calendar, featuring big names like Foals and Lewis Capaldi alongside the literally hundreds of upcoming outfits.

Preview: Twelve Of The Best Value UK Music Festivals In 2019

Words: Saam Das

Can you feel it coming? Festival season is almost well and truly under way so we figured we'd try to pick out some brilliant UK music festivals that we also think are brilliant value for money. On a per capita band basis, Glastonbury Festival and its behemoth of a line-up should probably be on here but with tickets around £250 quid, we've understandably opted more for smaller scale festivals for those with a lower budget.

Festival Review: Twelve Of The Best New Bands We Saw At The Great Escape 2018

The Great Escape @ various venues across Brighton (17-19 May 2018) // Words: Saam Das

We've lost count of the times we've attended The Great Escape - now well established as the best new music festival in the UK - and the countless excellent acts we've seen since we attended the debut Brighton festival back in 2006. So we figured this year, we might chart some of the best new bands we caught at The Great Escape 2018 for reference purposes.

Festival Review: Handmade Festival 2018

Handmade Festival (Leicester, 5-6 May '18) // Words: Saam Das

Leicester's Summer Sundae Festival was a notable selection in the UK festival calendar prior to its formal cancellation in 2013, but thankfully in its wake emerged a new music festival in the area - Handmade. An independent festival with a keen eye for new music, Handmade's also had bands of the stature of We Are Scientists and Frightened Rabbit as headliners, and 2018 offered a similar mix of established and new names.

Festival Review: Are You Listening? Festival 2018

Are You Listening? Festival @ various venues across Reading, 29 April '18 // Words: Saam Das

Are You Listening? Festival took over Reading for the sixth time in 2018, growing in reputation and attendance for its biggest and arguably best outing to date. One of the chief beneficiaries of the success of the event is the festival’s official charity partner, Reading Mencap. Here’s how the day went for us and some of the bands that graced Reading with their presence:

Festival Preview: Six Top Acts To See At Are You Listening? Festival 2018

Are You Listening? Festival 2018 (various venues across Reading, 28 April '18) // Words: Saam Das

Music festivals and Reading - name a more iconic duo. Okay, you probably can name several but that shouldn't take away from the popularity of Reading music festivals of which Are You Listening? is now firmly established. This April's edition is the festival's sixth, and increasingly, an important stop in the UK festival calendar.

Festival Review: Rockaway Beach 2018

Rockaway Beach (Butlin's Bognor Regis, 12-15 Jan '18) // Words: Saam Das

Rockaway Beach delivered the double whammy of knocking off both a visit to seaside town Bognor Regis and traditional family resort Butlin's in one fell swoop. As well as showcasing a string of brilliant bands, both old and new. Work commitments meant that the bands were missed on the first evening, but The Horrors and The Orb received particularly strong word of mouth, and the rest of the festival pleasingly met the subsequently high expectations.

Festival Preview: Eight Of The Best Acts To See At Rockaway Beach 2018

Rockaway Beach (12-14 Jan '18, Butlin's Bognor Regis) // Words: Saam Das

Few music festivals can claim to offer top bands, a roof over your head, and a water-based adventure park all included in the (very reasonable) ticket price, but Rockaway Beach has stepped up to meet these unique needs. Now entering its third year, the first major UK festival of the year kicks off this weekend, featuring the likes of Gang Of Four, Alabama 3, and one of the final performances of the departing Wild Beasts. We've picked out some potential festival highlights across the 2018 edition of Rockaway Beach:

Festival Review: Twelve Of The Best Films We Caught At The 2017 BFI London Film Festival

BFI London Film Festival 2017 (4-15 Oct '17) // Words: Lauren Johnson-Ginn & Saam Das

The 61st BFI London Film Festival was yet another success, with over 180,000 attendees flocking to London cinemas and almost 30,000 more attending satellite screenings across the UK. The 2017 London Film Festival opened with Andy Serkis's directorial debut 'Breathe' before closing, some 240+ feature films later, with Martin McDonagh's Oscar-threatening 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'. We've collected some of our favourite films from the LFF 2017 below in alphabetical order:

Festival Preview: Eight Top Bands To See At MIRRORS 2017

MIRRORS Festival (various venues across Hackney, 28 Oct '17) // Words: Saam Das

The third edition of MIRRORS lands in East London this Saturday, and we'll on hand to confirm whether autumnal music festivals are indeed all the rage. Adopting the popular formula of the bygone Camden Crawl and Communion's ever-popular Bushstock, MIRRORS will be taking over several venues in Hackney, and delivering a diverse and delicious range of acts. Headlined by the likes of Los Campesinos!, Pinegrove, Blind Pilot, we've plucked eight of the finest names on the roster for you to try to check out.

Festival Review: Bushstock 2017

Bushstock Festival (10 June 2017, various venues across Shepherd's Bush) // Words: Saam Das

The Communion Records-run Bushstock Festival is only into its seventh year of running, yet feels like such a vital staple of the UK festival scene. The 2017 edition once again offered the usual Bushstock mix of upcoming artists and notable headliners, with The Staves and Nick Mulvey appearing. A much delayed review of the day follows.

Festival Preview: Eight Acts To See At Bushstock 2017

Bushstock Festival @ various venues across Shepherd's Bush, London (10 June 2017) // Words: Saam Das

Now firmly established as one of London's finest one-day festivals, the Communion Records-run Bushstock once again descends on Shepherd's Bush. The festival typically has a strong dedication to new music, much like the mid-noughties clubnights that spawned the Communion brand, previously featuring on-the-rise acts such as Bastille and Daughter before they hit big. We've highlighted a few of our choice bands from the 2017 line up below:

Festival Review: Day Three Of The Great Escape 2016

The Great Escape Festival (19-21 May '16, Brighton) // Words: Saam Das

Following a successful first couple of days at the UK's finest new music festival, The Great Escape in Brighton, perhaps it was inevitable that our final day at the festival might fall short. That said, I still managed to catch some intriguing performances, although none that quite matched the might of Anna Meredith on day one or vigour of Meilyr Jones on day two.