Homegrown Festival 2026

On a Saturday in April, Brighton’s first festival of the year takes place over nine iconic small venues. Celebrating the city’s scene as well as bands who have contributed to making the place the musical and creative hub it’s renowned to be today, Homegrown Festival is the child of Brighton’s Music Venues Alliance, a collaboration of independent venues. The city is no stranger to multi-venue festivals, such as The Great Escape and Mutations, which occur all year round. This is perhaps the most charming as it focuses primarily on the local talent that makes the place so special.

Independent venues are incredibly important to local scenes, and Brighton has no shortage of them. It’s a melting pot of genres and musical ideas, and when everybody comes together something beautiful like this can happen. Though on the surface the focus is just on the music, it’s the sense of community and togetherness that really drives these events and gives the city such a positive reputation.

At The Hope and Ruin, which operated as a sort of base camp for the festival’s operations, duo Nierra Creek amazed with their combination of synth and drum machine with live vocals and guitar. Powerful autotuned vocals were belted out over string distorted guitar, with sections of raw vocals standing out. Sets at Homegrown last half an hour for the most part, meaning there’s plenty of time to discover a plethora of new bands.

Each venue is within close walking distance of the others. At The Prince Albert, emo rockers H_ngm_n commanded a crowd of head boppers with their fast and punchy music. Their sound is just as strong as their more popular contemporaries in their genre, and the small group of superfans singing along at the front really energised the band to pull out an outstanding performance.

The Prince Albert and Green Door Store are practically across the road from each other, so no artists were programmed to clash between these two venues. There was a lot of venue-hopping involved early in the day. Lindowman’s atmospheric noisy music featured violin alongside eerie quiet moments of beautiful vocals, penetrated by heavier sections. Soot Sprite’s grungey female-fronted indie was just a moment across the road once the previous set ended.

Billed originally as a secret set but revealed on the day, Projector took to the Green Door Store stage with ear-splittingly loud feedback. They did not relent for one moment. Their performance was raucous and so much fun. Continuing the heaviness, Belfast’s post-punk Enola Gay packed out the venue long before they took to the stage. Very quickly, a rough and energetic mosh pit opened on Green Door’s precarious cobbles. Their music was no different, with tracks like ‘Scrappers’ invigorating the crowd. Frontman Fionn Reilly was just as full of life as his audience, opening a pit himself before jumping in. The whole set was hot, foggy and atmospheric, with the lights cut for the last track. It was manic the entire way through, yet still such a friendly experience.

A dash back to The Hope and Ruin after witnessing the controlled chaos of Enola Gay would allow you to catch the very end of The Subways’ acoustic set and their 2005 hit ‘Rock & Roll Queen’. Everyone knew the lyrics to the most well known song at this year’s Homegrown. Melodic pop-rock group The Xcerts (who draw parallels with groups like Biffy Clyro and Twin Atlantic) followed, their euphoric and uptempo sound lighting up the room. They played host to a crowd of die-hard fans that knew every single word to every single song, beyond their hits such as ‘Feels Like Falling In Love’.

Homegrown festival had its own branded IPA courtesy of local brewer Abyss, and The Hope And Ruin’s Beelzebab provided incredible vegan kebabs. Though Brighton has no shortage of good places to eat and drink, it was great to support the festival and venues directly.

As the evening grew late, indie boyband Die Twice performed at The Prince Albert in a set filled to the brim with guitar solos and impressive vibrato from singer Olly Bayton. Trans singer and activist Jasmine.4.T headlined the venue. Though not from Brighton herself, she was welcomed with open arms. The city is undoubtedly one of, if not the, best places for LGBT+ performers to thrive. This set had a calmer, more chilled out vibe, but Jasmine and her band strayed to a heavier sound at times, such as at the end of ‘Find Ur Ppl’. The crowd reception was of course best for hits ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Disassociation’ and ‘Elephant’, but the room remained packed throughout the whole set.

The Folklore Rooms is undoubtedly the most beautiful venue in Brighton. Fairy lights and foliage decorate the rear of the stage, which sits in the corner of a quaint little room above The Quadrant pub. Thistle. performed to a full room, bringing their shoegazey indie reminiscent of groups like Shallowater to the festival. In such a small space, they were incredibly loud. Despite some technical difficulties (a string broke after just a couple of songs), the energy in the room remained high.

By this time it was well beyond midnight, and the majority of punters had headed home to hit the hay after a busy day of festivalgoing. For those who remained, funk ensemble Super Dupes were a welcome treat. Featuring two side-by-side drummers (one sporting bongos instead of toms), a saxophonist and a trumpeter, the group filled The Hope and Ruin with chilled out grooves and funky basslines. This jazz party was a perfect end to a busy day.

Homegrown Festival is one of the best opportunities to discover new high-quality bands in Brighton. Possibly the most cost-worthy festival in the city, it acts as a showcase of the true talent the South coast has to offer. Whether you’re acquainted with the scene or looking to discover something new, Homegrown has something for pretty much everyone across its nine venues.