Brighton Psych Fest 2026 Lineup

About Brighton Psych Fest 2026

Brighton Psych Fest runs one Friday, 1pm to 3am, across seven venues in the city centre and along the seafront: the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, Concorde 2, Komedia, Patterns, The Hope & Ruin, Alphabet and Volks. One wristband opens all of them, and 41 acts play between the early afternoon and half past one in the morning.

Stereolab headline, alone at the top of the poster and closing the Corn Exchange. Below them the bill runs deep in a way the single headline slot doesn't advertise: White Denim, Allah-Las, Anna Von Hausswolff, Mandy, Indiana, Gwenno, Automatic, Night Tapes, The KVB, Holy Wave, mary in the junkyard, The Belair Lip Bombs and Lael Neale all play, and then another two dozen acts fill the smaller rooms until close.

This is the Friday half of a two-city weekend: 24 of these 41 acts play Manchester Psych Fest the following day, under the same banner. Doing both means 260 miles between Friday's last set and Saturday's first, so most people pick a city, but if you miss someone here, they may well be on the other bill.

The festival publishes its full stage times and venue map in advance, which is rarer than it should be and is what makes a day like this plannable. Venues fill first come, first served, and they are not the same size (the Corn Exchange is a hall, Alphabet and Volks are small rooms), so a must-see in a little venue means arriving well before the set. Age limits differ by venue too, from 14+ at the Corn Exchange and Concorde 2 up to 18+ at Patterns, The Hope & Ruin and Alphabet.

Expect alternative, rock, psych and dream-pop across 41 acts.

Lineup last updated August 26, 2026

The headliners

• Stereolab — Motorik repetition welded to lounge-pop sweetness — vintage Moog drone, Lætitia Sadier's bilingual cool, and a back catalogue that half of modern indie has quietly been mining for thirty years. The only name on the top line of the poster, closing the Corn Exchange at 9:45pm.

Up-and-comers to catch early

• mary in the junkyard — A 9:45pm slot at Concorde 2 for a band still early enough that the room will not be full when they start.
• Hudson Freeman — First act on at Patterns, half an hour long. The kind of slot you catch by accident and remember.
• Cordelia Gartside — Thirty minutes at The Hope & Ruin, early enough that nothing else worth seeing clashes with it.
• Ringlets — Sandwiched between The Heavenly Bodes and Les Big Byrd at The Hope & Ruin, which is a good sign of how the bookers rate them.
• Karma Sheen — Opens the whole festival at Concorde 2 at 3:30pm, the earliest set of the day and a room worth being in early.

Other acts worth planning around

• Anna Von Hausswolff — An hour in the Corn Exchange, the one room on the map built for what she does.
• Mandy, Indiana — 22:00 at Komedia, which is a small room for a band this loud.
• Les Big Byrd — A full hour at The Hope & Ruin, the longest club-tier slot on the bill.
• Holy Wave — Early evening at Komedia rather than a late slot, which suits them better than it sounds.
• The KVB — 5:30pm at Komedia: daylight outside, which is its own kind of joke for this band.
• MAQUINA. — 23:30 at Komedia, the point in the night where the bill stops being a rock festival.

The lineup by day

Brighton Psych Fest 2026 lineup FAQ