Ones to Watch at The Great Escape Festival 2025

As Brighton once again buzzes with the arrival of The Great Escape Festival, the city transforms into a playground for new music discovery. Known as a launchpad for emerging talent, this year’s lineup promises an eclectic mix of genres, voices, and global sounds. Whether you’re navigating packed seafront venues or stumbling across a hidden gem in a basement bar, here are five essential acts you won’t want to miss in 2025.

Renowned as Europe’s leading festival for new music discovery, The Great Escape invites attendees to take a moment to immerse themselves in art and creativity, whilst offering a strong possibility of catching the next big thing.. Here's who we will be watching, meet us on the seafront!

1. Sim0ne

In the last two years, sim0ne has gone from bedroom DJ/Producer to BBC Radio 1’s Future Star of 2024 and star of TikTok’s #ElectronicMusic campaign. The Edinburgh-born, London-based DJ and producer has gained an increasing global fanbase (including 2 tours of Australia and a debut Asia run) through a series of viral remixes including “Say Yes To Heaven”, a bootleg turned official remix that garnered so much attention that Lana Del Rey officially released the single with sim0ne’s being the only remix.

Her high-energy blends include hard house and happy hardcore and have landed her a viral Boiler Room, guest shows across the BBC.

2. KÄSSY

KÄSSY is anything and anyone she wants to be. Singer, instrumentalist, producer, performer. Her music sometimes sounds like walking through the deepest depths of eclectic mania hell and other times it sounds like floating through the highest heavens of intense emotion and apathy. Its prettiness is sprinkled with paranoia and sometimes even downright ugliness.

3. Ziyad Al-Samman

Ziyad’s love of life is deeply rooted in his Syrian and Jordanian roots, and he shares that love in his psychedelic disco-pop songs and supercharged live shows. Inspired by hours of listening to Prince, Pulp, Gorillaz and Egyptian singer Amr Diab, his debut EP ‘Pleasure Complex’ leads us into a stroboscopic frenzy

4. CORTO ALTO

Fast-rising Scottish composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist corto.alto has been described as a traditional jazz head raised in the age of the internet. The moniker of Glasgow-based Liam Shortall, corto.alto brings a fresh perspective to a heady mix of intuitive improvisation, electronic production, broken beat bounce and bass-heavy dub

5. Kousto

Kousto first emerged in 2018, performing under a pseudonym inspired by the French explorer Jacques Cousteau. Since his inception, he has firmly established himself on the emerging artist scene with critically acclaimed releases and support from industry heavyweights such as The Shapeshifters, Honey Dijon, and Folamour.

With hundreds of acts and dozens of stages spread across Brighton, picking a schedule can be overwhelming — but discovering your next favourite artist is all part of the fun. Keep your ears open, your walking shoes on, and we’ll see you down by the pier.