In some ways it seems natural that an indie rock icon should move to Brighton, the city that still has a rare thriving record store, a host of independent venues and a creative underworld of young bands trying to make a name for themselves.

David Gedge, frontman of long-running cult favourites The Wedding Present, upped sticks from his native Leeds – via Seattle – to move to Brighton three years ago.

“I’ve always liked it here, and thought it was a great place for a band to be, so when I came back from America I realised there was no need to go back to Leeds,” he says. “Most of the band are scattered around the country anyway.”

Active since 1985 (including a hiatus from 1997 to 2004), The Wedding Present are revered by a loyal fanbase. They flock from all over the country, and further afield, to see the band perform with a selection of other acts at the annual At The Edge of the Sea festival at Concorde 2, created by Gedge and taking place this year on August 20.

“People come for the event and then stay for all the things people usually go to Brighton for,” Gedge says. As curator, he describes his role as akin to a “child in a candy store.”

Fittingly for a band that has always written about the highs and lows of everyday British life – their debut album was called George Best, after the Manchester United footballer – the idea for At The Edge of the Sea came to him while The Wedding Present were sitting in a roadside branch of Little Chef, a British institution if ever there was one.

“The subject came up of how many people we’d met over the years in various bands,” the singer says. “You get to know people really well when you go on tour with them, but then tend to split apart when you get back home. So we just thought, ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could bring people we like back here?’”

This year, Gedge promises a “name band – a band with a bit of profile,” but doesn’t have them confirmed yet. He won’t give any hints, because “I’d look stupid if they said no.”

The Wedding Present were championed by legendary DJ John Peel, and Gedge highlights another Peel-endorsed group – Melys from Wales – as a “must-see” At The Edge of the Sea.

The ninth album of The Wedding Present’s career arrives in September. Titled Going, Going..., Gedge took inspiration from a road trip in America to create a multi-media concept – there is a song and short film for every 20 states he passed through, which each track named after a certain town. Starting in Maine and ending up in Santa Monica, it truly delivers on the overblown term ‘sonic odyssey.’

“It was a road trip, of sorts,” says Gedge. “That was the framework for the album, but it wasn’t a case of seeing a vista and thinking that it spoke to me in a certain musical way. The imagery was a starting point and the songs developed from that.”

This unorthodox release is not new to The Wedding Present – in 1992, they released a single for each month of the year. Gedge also points to an album of Ukrainian folk music the band recorded for their first major label release. “A lot of people were appalled by that,” he laughs. “But I never wanted to be one of those bands who do the traditional thing – write an album, go on tour, and repeat all over again.”

Revisiting older material live was once anathema for Gedge, but now he is embracing “reimagining” The Wedding Present’s back catalogue on stage.

“I don’t think that when a song appears on an album that it is the definitive, final version. It’s fun to revisit those songs now. I had the philosophical notion that looking back is as valid as looking forward.

“When the idea was put to me in 2007 to play a tour entirely of our first album I was appalled. I thought ‘no I can’t do this – I’m a serious, forward-thinking artist!’ It seemed like mere nostalgia. I was quite against it, but everybody I spoke to said I should definitely do it. That said, I wouldn’t want to be one of those bands who just dwell on the past only.”

Of course this will approach will also please The Wedding Present’s newer followers, who never got the chance to see the band’s eighties and early nineties output. “We’ve got to the stage where children of our original fans are coming to shows,” jokes Gedge.

At The Edge of the Sea, Concorde 2, Madeira Drive, Brighton, Saturday, August 20, 3-10pm, £22.50, 01273 623200.