Convention programme at The Great Escape announced

The Great Escape Festival, that features both signed and unsigned acts in venues all around Brighton, has revealed the series of events for its annual music convention, CMU has reported.

This year sessions will host discussions with both festival promoters and record label insiders. In 2006, Bestival founder Rob da Bank interviewed festival veteran and Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis at the Great Escape Convention in Brighton. This May, both men will be reunited along with three inspiring young promoters to discuss the currrent UK festival market. During the ‘Great Festival Conversation’, these festival chiefs will also be discussing the intricacies of their work, how to create and maintain a distinct personality for music events and how to balance creative ambitions with commercial and logistical realities. The music moguls will also be arguing over their dream festival line-ups and favourite moments of theirs over the past couple of years.

Also confirmed for the convention is a panel of four independent record company founders who will be offering up their experience in setting up and running a label. This particular session is aimed at budding entrepreneurs, artists considering self-releasing tracks, or anyone who has an interest in finding out the inner workings of a record label. Speaking on the panel will be Alex Fitzpatrick from Holy Roar, Ollie Jacob from Memphis Industries, Mathew Young from Song, By Toad and Robert Luis from Brighton-based Tru Thoughts. 

Acts confirmed for the festival itself include Maximo Park, African Express Sound System, Dry the River, Spector, Mystery Jets, Willy Mason, Booka Shade, EMA, Forest Swords, Errors, Micachu & The Shapes, Maxxi Soundsystem, We Have Band and Loney Dear, with many more acts still to be announced.