Features
Bigger Waves In Vienna
Austria’s Waves Vienna showcase and conference started to attract numbers matching its growing reputation, pulling 811 delegates to the Urania lecture theatre Oct. 3-6.
Photo: Martin Wirbel.
Eurosonic-Noorderslag creative director Peter Smidt (2nd L) discusses "How Many Festivals Can A Market Take?" with music journalist Edo Plovanic, Reinhold Seyfriedsberger from Ink Music agency and Exit Festival's Dragan Ambrozic Oct. 3.
Visitor numbers were 19 percent up on last year as 130 or so acts played across 16 local venues, including the Flex at the Danube Canal, Odeon Theatre, Fluc, Hotel Stefanie and Pratersauna.
“Waves went fine, we were happy,” Music Austria director Franz Hergovich told Pollstar.
The conference slogan is “East Meets West,” while “Women in the Music Industry in Eastern Europe” was one of the panel topics.
As if to reinforce the idea of “East Meets West,” this year Waves Vienna also twinned with Waves Bratislava, about 50 miles away in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.
Shuttle buses ferried people from one to the other, taking about an hour to complete the journey.
The Slovakian bash, which had a one-day conference Oct, 5, had about 3,000 for the evening showcase sessions in clubs including Stará Tržnica, KC Dunaj, Nu Spirit Club, Majestic Music Club and Randal.
Next year it will better mirror Waves Vienna by becoming a three-day event. Acts at Waves Vienna included The Wedding Present, Au Revoir Simone, Bo Candy & His Broken Hearts, Compuphonic, Thomas David, The End Band, Fräulein Hona, Ghost Capsules, Kari Amirian, and Magic Arm.