Noorderslag Looks At Sweden

The news that Sweden’s Loney, dear has 10 festival shows from this year’s European Talent Exchange Programme coincided with the announcement that next year’s Eurosonic-Noorderslag weekend will include a special focus on the country.

"Sweden has one of the more prolific music scenes in Europe," said Noorderslag creative director Peter Smidt, as Loney, dear bids to emulate the success of such previous Swedish ETEP winners as Soundtrack of Our Lives (2004) and Moneybrother (2005).

At the moment, it’s a show ahead of Goose from Belgium, which is one ahead of the U.K.’s Enter Shakiri. There’s a clutch of acts that are two further behind with six shows each, including Norway’s Datarock, Germany’s Digitalism, the U.K.’s Shitdisco and The View, as well as Peter von Poehl, and Peter Bjorn and John from Sweden.

The details of Noorderslag’s Sweden focus will be unwrapped at a special press conference scheduled for June 14th, during the country’s annual Hultsfred Festival.

Apart from several national acts performing during Groningen’s Eurosonic-Noorderslag weekend (January 10-12), there will also be some seminars based on the Swedish market and how best to do business in it.

The focus has been set up in cooperation with Export Music Sweden, STIM/Svensk Musik, P3 Swedish Radio and Hultsfred Festival.

Smidt said his Bumacultuur team is dedicated to shaping Eurosonic-Noorderslag as the most efficient business event for promoting new talent in Europe.

Despite the 2007 gathering being forced to go ahead without European Union funding, the result of a delay in the finalising of the community’s cultural budget, it still attracted 2,400 music biz professionals from 36 countries.

About 240 acts appeared and took their chance to get spotted by the 54 festivals that subscribe to the ETEP scheme. More than 90 journalists and other media people turned up to report it.

This year’s ETEP has already broken its record, as it does every year, for the number of European festival appearances it generates for emerging talent.

So far, it’s confirmed 165 shows and program organiser Ruud Berends is still counting. Last year’s ETEP produced 156 shows.