Pop festival of the week: The Great Escape, various venues, Brighton

Head for the small venues: Parquet Courts

Ranging off-piste is the way to enjoy this South-east version of Texas's South by Southwest, where a wristband gets you in to hundreds of gigs city-wide.

If the queue for Everything Everything daunts, fret not: adventurous Great Escapists might have stumbled on AlunaGeorge or Nick Cave watching Palma Violets last year, so head for the small venues, where rising hipster heroes Merchandise, Jagwar Ma, the Family Rain, Childhood, Charlie Boyer & the Voyeurs, Phosphorescent, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Parquet Courts await, among others. And since those others number 300-plus, you won't be stuck for choice.

0871 220 0260; seetickets.com, Thursday to 18 May