Better Than A Budapest Dog’s Breakfast

The New Year and the European conference calendar both begin with Eurosonic-Noorderslag – Europe’s most popular live music business gathering – which is looking to celebrate its 25th anniversary with an even better show than usual.

In the last 10 years it’s grown from being a parochial hangout for the Dutch music industry to Europe’s “must do” conference, largely because of the emergence of the European Talent Exchange Programme and more recently the addition of the European Festival Awards.

Another key ingredient in Eurosonic’s artist-focused recipe for success is the support of the European Broadcasting Union, which meant at least some part of last year’s event was covered by radio stations from 24 countries.

It remains a mystery how an event that embraces talent on a pan-European basis and offers a truly pan-European platform doesn’t attract financial support from the European Union.

“I’m very disappointed and beyond that I don’t know what to say,” Eurosonic creative director Peter Smidt told Pollstar, shortly after being told his showcase conference failed to get any cash from the last round of European funding.

Working out why he can’t get financial help to grow an ETEP scheme that offers such huge opportunities to European talent and apparently has the unqualified support of the European festival circuit involves a somewhat speculative study of European politics.

“We will keep counting on culture to broaden our horizons and give us fresh eyes to understand ourselves and others, to meet in equal terms in our diversity. It helps us to cross borders,” Androulla Vassiliou – the EU commissioner for education, culture and youth – told the European parliament as she launched its latest cultural initiative Oct. 7.

It’s the bit about the equal terms and the diversity that has a hollow sound, because that’s where the politicking gets in the way. Many of the old Eastern Bloc countries who’ve joined the EU in the last 10 years would rather contribute less to the cultural budget, preferring to hang on to more of the cash to develop their own cultures within their own borders.

Some of the recent awards from the cultural budget seem to indicate the European Commission has started to favour these countries.

In the last round of funding when Smidt failed to secure the euro 150,000 per year for three years that was needed to double the size of ETEP, the EC gave euro 900,000 to a Hungarian organisation researching the key role sheep have played in the development of European culture.

In the last year, a similar EC grant for a plush and purpose-built home where dogs can relax in Budapest – a sort of canine health spa – caused controversy by running out of cash before the foundation was dug.

Whether it was intentional or not, Smidt and ETEP organiser Ruud Berends look to have second-guessed the commissioners’ mindset when the plan for doubling the size of the programme also included setting up a similar scheme for the former Eastern Bloc countries.

The cynical view is that the EC cultural wizards feel the best way to get the eastern and central European countries to cough up cash for the cultural budget is to demonstrate that they’ll hand even more cash back. If that’s the case, it won’t be long before Eurosceptics in Western Europe start a fuss about it.

In the short term, Smidt is left with trying to demonstrate that Eurosonic and ETEP are as worthy of funding as a Budapest dog’s breakfast, an unfathomable task when it’s hard to work out how the politically correct wind is blowing.

Smidt and Berends will be hoping for better from the EC when the next round of funding is announced in the spring, although it’s likely they’ll still be lamenting not having the cash to let even more European festivals into ETEP.

Evidence that acts appreciate ETEP and the platforms it provides will come from 2010 winners White Lies, which will pay a free show in a heated tent on Groningen’s main square Jan. 14. Over the three days of Eurosonic-Noorderslag, more than 200 acts will play in venues within an easy walking distance of the city centre.

The most urgent panel on the conference agenda may be the one that focuses on Pollstar’s end-of-year figures detailing the health of the global concert business.

2010 ticket sales and box-office grosses are down and the only thing that’s gone up is the average price of a ticket.

Eurosonic-Noorderslag is Jan. 12-15.