Offie Mag

One of Brighton’s biggest autumn music weekends is back, with Mutations Festival returning for 2026.

The festival will take over the city on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th October, bringing more than 100 artists across ten of Brighton’s grassroots venues. The first 73 acts have now been announced, with another 30 still to come.

Now heading into its eighth edition, Mutations has become a pretty essential part of Brighton’s music calendar, bringing together artists from across indie, punk, electronic, hip-hop and everything in between.

This year’s first announcement is no different.

Fat Dog will headline Friday night, returning to Brighton with a new album, new members and their famously chaotic live show. Saturday’s headline comes from a slightly different corner of the musical universe, with Mike D 5D bringing Beastie Boys legend Mike Diamond to Brighton. The performance will be particularly special for the city, marking the first live appearance from a member of the Beastie Boys here since the group played alongside Run-DMC at Brighton Centre back in 1987.

There’s also plenty to discover further down the bill, with the dynamic Tokyo-based bed, Irish singer-songwriter Dove Ellis, Squid, The North, Scaler, Modern Woman, Uche Yara, Deary, Plantoid, Silver Gore, World News and many more all included in the first wave.

As always, the venues are a huge part of what makes Mutations work, with this year’s festival spreading across CHALK, Patterns, Revenge, The Hope & Ruin, Green Door Store, Dust, The Prince Albert, Folklore Rooms, Alphabet and Daltons.

Day and weekend tickets are available, as well as reduced Under 25s tickets and instalment plans.

Words by Louis Rowland