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.

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.

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.

Preview: Celebrate Black History Month With These Films At The 2018 BFI London Film Festival

BFI London Film Festival 2018 (10-21 October 2018) // Words: Lauren Johnson-Ginn & Saam Das

The 62nd BFI London Film Festival kicks off today, with 'Widows' as its Opening Night Gala. As mentioned in our recent music-focussed preview of the LFF 2018, Steve McQueen's new effort is a tantalizing prospect, and an appropriate Opening Night Gala as the Oscar winner hails from London. As one of the industry's (sadly rare) successful black directors, it is also appropriate considering October is Black History Month in the UK. We've put together a list of some other appropriate films to help celebrate BHM at this year's LFF.

Preview: A Music Fan's Guide To The 2018 BFI London Film Festival

BFI London Film Festival (10-21 October 2018) // Words: Saam Das

The BFI London Film Festival 2018 is upon us for yet another year - an impressive 62nd edition. We're on hand to guide you through as many of the music-related films at the 2018 LFF as we possibly can. Many of these films sadly won't make an appearance otherwise in UK cinemas, and for those that do, you'll miss out on the oft-interesting introductions and Q&As that characterise these films' appearances at a film festival.

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 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 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.

Preview: A Look At Some Of The Best Films For Music Fans At The 2017 BFI London Film Festival

2017 BFI London Film Festival (4-15 October 2017) // Words: Saam Das

It was sad to open this year's programme for the BFI London Film Festival and not find a dedicated sonic strand as has been the case in recent years. There are still plenty of music-related films available for consumption however, including this evening's Opening Night Gala 'Breathe', directed by Andy Serkis and scored by Nitin Sawhney.

Preview: Ten Of Our Top Picks At The BFI London Film Festival 2017

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

Public booking for the 2017 BFI London Film Festival opens this morning at 10am, with the festival itself kicking off on October 4th with Andy Serkis' directorial debut 'Breathe, starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, and scored by Nitin Sawhney. From the established to the more obscure, we've plucked ten of our most anticipated movies from the LFF's catalogue below.

BFI London Film Festival 2016: Ten Of The Best Music-Related Films To See [Preview]

2016 BFI London Film Festival (various venues, 5-16th Oct '16) // Words: Saam Das

The 60th BFI London Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday October 5th, with the topically titled 'A United Kingdom'. We'll be along for the ride, and will be catching as many films as physically possible. Ahead of our spreadsheet-based wanderings from screen to screen, we thought we should highlight some of the most interesting music-based films to watch at the festival, which you can find alphabetically-listed below.

Festival Preview: Six Bands To See At The Alternative Escape 2016

The Alternative Escape at The Great Escape Festival (various venues across Brighton, 19-21 May '16) // Words: Saam Das

The Great Escape Festival is such a hotbed of music that it even has its own overflow area, suitably titled The Alternative Escape. Plenty of upcoming talent play shows that can often be attended by those with and without tickets, which is pretty handy as the main festival has now sold out. Following our ten recommended acts to catch at The Great Escape 2016, here's some more to catch at The Alternative Escape:

Festival Preview: Ten Bands To See At The Great Escape 2016

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

Back in 2006, I took a punt on a new festival called The Great Escape. Although not a great enough punt to pay for more than one night at a Travelodge in Brighton. Since then, The Great Escape has grown into the UK's finest festival for new music, and arguably one of the world's finest festivals. This year, they've grown even further, partnering with Raindance Film Festival for a new film strand.

Festival Preview: Ten Acts To See At Are You Listening? 2016

Are You Listening Festival (Reading, 23 April '16) // Words: Saam Das

It's fair to say that Reading's Are You Listening? Festival is somewhat overshadowed by its geographically similar August-held music festival. But perhaps it shouldn't be. At just £15 for dozens of top notch bands across various venues, and none of the logistic issues of camping and what not, Are You Listening is certainly worth investigating.

Preview: Ten Films To Watch At The BFI London Film Festival 2015

BFI London Film Festival (7-18 Oct '15) // Words: Lauren Johnson-Ginn & Saam Das

The BFI London Film Festival returns to its familiar surroundings this week, and we have ten of our most anticipated films to share with you. Read more of our thoughts and click on the film titles below for further information, and find out about last minute ticket availability via the BFI website.

Festival Preview: Eight Acts To See At Bushstock 2015

Bushstock Festival @ various venues across Shepherd's Bush, London (13 June '15) // Words: Saam Das

The Communion Records-led Bushstock Festival enters its fifth edition in 2015, with over thirty bands playing across six venues in West London. We've already highlighted some excellent bands on the line up in previous festival previews - Sophie Jamieson and The Amazons in our AYL Festival round up, and Matt Woods and Port Isla in our preview for The Great Escape. Here's a fresh batch of additional festival recommendations:

Festival Preview: Alternative Escape 2015 @ Brighton [Seven Acts To See]

Alternative Escape across various venues in Brighton (13-16 May '15) // Words: Saam Das

We went to the very first edition of The Great Escape back in 2006. It was quite a limited affair, with not much on during the day for the average punter. That's changed greatly over the years, and the strand of the festival known as The Alternative Escape has really developed. With tickets now sold out for the main festival (preview of that here), The Alternative Escape is a great way for anyone to rock up to Brighton and see some top acts for very little, or even nothing at all.