Teaming up with the Old Blue Last, we’ll be taking over DUST on the Thursday night with sets from MORN, SLAG, Annie-Dog, Salarymen, Ribbon Skirt, Bathing Suits and IBSXJAUR.

With less than a month to go before this year’s edition of The Great Escape festival, we are thrilled to announce the return of our Hard of Hearing stage – produced this year in collaboration with the Old Blue Last – and to confirm the details of its lineup. The Brighton festival sets the tone for the future of music in Britain and globally, featuring an international set of acts across genres representing the vanguard of contemporary music. Running across a ridiculous number of venues around Brighton, this year’s festival takes place between the 13^th and 16^th May. We will be hosting our stage at DUST, located right at the heart of the action, from 7.15pm to 12.45am on Thursday 14^th May, with sets coming from MORN, SLAG, Annie-Dog, Salarymen, Ribbon Skirt, Bathing Suits and IBSXJAUR.

Opening proceedings are MORN, one of the growing crop of pathbreaking new artists coming out of South Wales right now. Excitement around the band is growing around their high energy live shows, which deliver on the promise of their debut single, the  2025 Speedy Wunderground collaboration ‘Modern Man’. Following them will be a hometown set from SLAG, whose joyful combination of heaviness with pop glamour was a highlight of ours at Brighton Psych Fest last year.

 At 9.15, we’ve got a set from hotly tipped experimental pop artist Annie-Dog, who recently signed to tastemaker label Dance to the Radio. Following that, Australian duo Salarymen bring their synthesis of indie, disco and psych influences to the stage. Coming off a UK headline tour and support shows opening for DMAs, they are sure to be in electric form in Brighton. After that, we’ve got Montreal-based duo Ribbon Skirt, whose immersive and poignantly human sound is sure to make for a powerful performance. The group’s 2025 debut LP ‘Bite Down’ was a Stereogum Album of the Week and was shortlisted for Canada’s Polaris Music Prize.

After midnight, we’ve got a surefire burst of cathartic energy booked in from Bathing Suits. The Leeds band are one of the UK’s most original and exciting acts right now, pairing the luridity and formal innovations of hyper-pop with the live dynamism of a band setup. Lining up as one of the festival’s must-see acts, their midnight set for us at DUST will surely be the ideal moment to catch them. Keeping that energy up, we’ve got Portuguese duo IBSXJAUR coming in with their own brand of underground dance, which combines techno and drum and bass with the euphoria of pop. They’ll be keeping the party going from 1.15am.

The full Great Escape lineup is out now and features countless further Hard of Hearing favourites including PVA, casual smart, 1000 Rabbits, The Orchestra (For Now), Y, Pollyfromthedirt, The Orielles and many more. We’ll be back with our comprehensive festival preview a little closer to the time to give you a hand picking your way through the best of the action. Until then, full lineup information, tickets and delegate passes are available at https://greatescapefestival.com