Returning for its biggest year yet, the festival celebrates the people, places and unpredictability that define Brighton’s grassroots scene.

Following two sold-out instalments in 2024 and 2025, Homegrown returned on Saturday 11 April, with 70 artists across nine grassroots music venues dotted throughout the city. As the organisers put it:

"There’s a reason Brighton is bustling and eyes around the world hold this little city in such high esteem. It’s a place where dedication and love are rewarded. Homegrown Festival is a celebration of all of that."

Building on its foundations, the festival continued to champion the local talent and communities that cement Brighton as a vital stop on the UK music map. This year, it also welcomed out-of-town artists who contribute to the city through the touring circuit, reflecting the reciprocal relationship that helps sustain both Brighton and the wider scene.

With genres spanning folk, punk, jazz, rock, pop, shoegaze and every alt nook and cranny in between, planning your day quickly becomes an exercise in compromise. But somewhere between dashing from venue to venue, bumping into old friends and making new ones, you realise the beauty of Homegrown actually lies in its spontaneity, being in the here and now. Plans shift and paths change as you follow the sound of something intriguing. That sense of discovery is the festival’s lifeblood.

Unlike many festivals of its kind, Homegrown is curated by the Music Venues Alliance Brighton - the people who keep these spaces alive week in, week out. Speaking to festival programmer Sal at the ever-buzzing Hope & Ruin after collecting our wristbands from the bar, the monumental scale of the behind-the-scenes effort was clear. But so was the collective pride; from photographers and independent magazines to local promoters, fans and the artists themselves, Homegrown is a true community effort.

Three years on, Homegrown has firmly established itself as the true start of Brighton’s festival season.

Spoilt for choice, here’s what the Rapture team caught.

Meg’s Homegrown

An otherworldly start to the day, Eva Lunny transformed the Hope & Ruin into a scene of tranquility and stillness. Working with harp and ambient electronics, her set unfolded in slow, shimmering layers. The room was packed but hushed, and held rare pin-drop attention. As textures built and receded, Eva carefully commanded the atmosphere, allowing the sounds and room to breathe. A serene and striking opening to the day that set the tone in the most unexpected way.

Lucy Darke brought her noir-soul to Alphabet, backed by a band locked tightly into smoky grooves and slow-burning rhythms. Her voice was heavenly rich and cushioned by lovely backing vocals. There was a sense of restraint throughout, the band holding something just beneath the surface. Closing song ‘Kleo’ took a darker turn: basslines thickened, tambourines cut through, and the mood barbed into something more menacing. That contrast of sweetness against weight made for a gripping finish.

Emerging from the embers of Van Zon, Lindow Man played their debut gig at Green Door Store and leaned more fully into the avant-garde. Somewhere between prog-folk, math rock and medieval dirge, their sound was dense and unpredictable, but somehow threaded with melodic clarity. Bass and drums rolled and carried the weight of the set, whilst violin cut through with a brightness that sometimes lifted the murk, and sometimes added to it in duel with guitar. Shared vocals complete with guttural bellows beckoned the room to move and invited us into their liberation.

Over at Rossi, Krumpets delivered an affecting set that blended mellow country textures with deeply introspective songwriting. With banjo, bass and guitar lines weaving through ambient backing elements, the trio’s sound was rooted yet expansive, drawing easy comparisons to the likes of Courtney Barnett and Big Thief. Each member took turns on vocals, their distinct tones giving shape to songs that explored identity, mental health and self-reflection with striking honesty. A change of pace came in the closing track, as the banjo player moved to drums for a song framed as a conversation with their younger selves: tender, reflective and resonant.

Another debut show from Right Right Right, featuring a sweetly unexpected union of the Harrys from original Brighton names Fur and Wife Swap USA. The four-piece brought a wiry, no-frills energy to The Prince Albert. Their sound nodded to Parquet Courts and Television with angular guitars, driving rhythm and a restless momentum. Sharp, incisive lyricism was balanced with an undercurrent of surfy looseness, whilst the drums glued everything together: punchy, precise and constantly propelling everything forward. One standout track dissolved into a slowed, almost weightless ending, only to snap and scrap straight into a 30-second burst of punkish intensity.

Not every plan at Homegrown goes the distance. Faced with a queue snaking down the stairs for Jasmine 4.t at The Prince Albert, a quick pivot led to Kitchen Lover at The Pipeline, and straight into chaos. The room was heaving and sweat clung to the air as bodies moved as one with near-constant crowd surfing. A perfect, raucous reminder of why it always pays to follow the path of least resistance at a festival like this.

Dexter's Homegrown

I commenced my day in a mad dash across the city to catch Soft Top at the seaside venue of Daltons, where you can see the waves crashing through the wide window at the back. Led by Miles Goodall, and having recently announced an album releasing in the summer, Soft Top took us through some of their most hauntingly emotional tracks. Their set was most striking at the beginning of the day, not caught amongst the rush, the cello and clarinet had room to breathe.

M. Woodroe was next at DIY powerhouse Pipeline. These guys played to a packed-out room, washing the audience over with crashing drums, distorted guitar and erratic vocals. They had fantastic stage presence, the intimate venue suited their punk sound and DIY ethos. ‘Carte Blanche’ is an excellent grunge-inducing political track with fuzzy guitar and rhythmic lyrical delivery. 

Call Me Franco are local favourites of mine, and it was a short walk back to Daltons to catch their instrumental set. These are guitar songs you can dance to, with multiple of their tracks going way over the 5-minute mark. The tracks search for their groove, find it, and continue until all energy has been explored and the crowd is left satisfied. The trio don’t say much during their show, but the psychedelia inspired rhythms speak for themselves. 

My first stop at Alphabet of the day was to see headliners CLT DRP, who dazzled the venue with their electro-punk sound. Fronted by Annie Dorrett who employs the use of nu-metal like vocals, she marched about the stage commanding the audience to move with the sound. Single ‘Until you Showed Me’, was their standout track, blending rap, techno and high-energy. I was blown away by how textured their sound is, considering their set up is only a guitar, drums and a singer. 

The Wrong Trousers was the last band of the night throughout the whole festival. Upstairs in the Hope & Ruin, the festival goers let loose, with mosh pits forming as the band played their funk and post-punk aligned single ‘Freddie Mercury’. With plenty of cowbell to go around, the high energy performance from the four-piece resulted in a superb ending for the festival. Brighton Locals who have been on the circuit for years, they have proven that even at the 1:15am slot, they can get the whole crowd dancing. 

Ben’s Homegrown

Thimble are an elaborate five-piece, multi-instrumentalist act who were packed onto the Folklore Rooms stage and quite appropriately reached capacity for their debut festival set. Their sound takes elements of Latin, folk, indie, jazz and everything in between to provide a masterful array of textures delivered in ambiguous structures. Their set never wavered and the audience was in awe of their innovative instrumentation. Jamie provided beautiful chord progressions, George utilised the kit in a mature and proficient manner and Nellie fluctuated between bass and keys, all acting as a formidable glue in the midst of flourishing instrumentation, finding unparalleled synergy between the frenzied arrangements. They harnessed a powerful concoction of catharsis, humility and rhythmic prowess to show beauty in the fluidity of their sound. 

Artist Spotlight feature with Thimble coming soon.

As the sun began to set over Homegrown, Moon Idle took to a packed-out Green Door Store. Fronted by Quilla, hauntingly beautiful and lilting vocals floated through the room over intimate and intense instrumentation. Over the course of their Brighton tenure, their sound has refined into something sophisticated, with elevated percussive elements tapping into trip-hop and shoegaze, nodding to the likes of Portishead and Mazzy Star. There was a heightened presence throughout, with space and restraint used to striking effect, whilst lead guitarist Jasper propelled the set with waves of ambience. Their abrasive but finely controlled performance of last year’s single ‘Godzilla’ had the crowd screaming back every words.

Die Twice are a band on everyone's radar, with three successful single releases in the build up to a five-track EP set to be released later this month. Their emphatic and highly praised performance at The Prince Albert delivered on all fronts: from Olly’s commanding vocal performance to Billy’s bombastic, whirlwind of guitar displays, while Finn and Jake’s rhythm section remained flawless in its unity throughout. Together, they generated a thrilling set and made a significant impression on the crowd, carrying themselves with an effortless and formidable cool that speaks to their professionalism and prowess as musicians. Recent releases 'Jakabo’ and ‘Wishbone’ lost none of their power live, each channelling a pained and bittersweet energy and universal resonance that helps explain why Die Twice have quickly become Brighton favourites.

Brighton legends Hutch steered Homegrown to a close at The Hope & Ruin, drawing in a lot of familiar faces and packing the room to capacity. This was perhaps our favourite set of theirs to date, creating a profound sense of community in the crowd and epitomising how important festivals like Homegrown are to the phenomenal grassroots scene we have here. They played many a fan favourite, including recent releases ‘Pepper Kettle’ and ‘Mrs Sunshine’, both of which sit on a spectrum of transcendent whimsy and warm psychedelia. They closed with a rather cathartic and sentimental number that showcased a masterful attention to dynamics and proved the most evocative track of the evening. Tears, smiles and euphoria across the room were a reminder of just how special Hutch are to the Brighton audience.

Even across three writers, we barely scratched the surface. That’s Homegrown’s greatest strength: no matter where you ended up, you were in always the right place.