Brighton festival The Great Escape is always a wonderful barometer of emerging talent, and next year even more of it than usual will come from our shores as organisers have just announced that Ireland will be their lead country partner in 2011. The festival, which takes place from May 12th to 14th next year, has previously chosen Canada (2006), France (2007), Norway (2008), New Zealand (2009) and Australia (2010) as country partners all of whom have seen notable success for their bands and business since being part of The Great Escape.
According to the press release, "Ireland has been chosen due to its continually excellent live music and recording scene and with a host of new talent emerging from Ireland this is the right time for the Irish artists and music businesses to be in the foreground at The Great Escape." Aw, shucks, aren't they kind?
Eugene Downes, CEO of Culture Ireland, commented: "More than ever before, Irish artists are defining Ireland's global reputation as a leader in imagination and innovation. Irish musicians and bands are great ambassadors for Creative Ireland at important international showcase events such as The Great Escape. We were pleased to welcome the TGE team at Hard Working Class Heroes last week, following which, we are delighted that Ireland has been chosen as the spotlight country for 2011. We look forward to working with the organisers and our partners at FMC through Music From Ireland to generate further opportunities for Irish bands to reach new audiences and markets".
No doubt, 2011's festival will have as cutting edge a line up as usual, and it'll be interesting to see which of our best people make the bill. Super early bird delegate tickets are already on sale priced £80 and artist registration is now open at https://www.escapegreat.com/artistRegistration/
