Where The Music Is A Hit

While the European conference circuit is beginning to look even more like an endless house party where the same guests regularly move from room to room, Sweden’s new Where The Music Is appears set to be an annual entry in a lot of music business people’s diaries.

Panel moderator Allan McGowan hears from Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio), Fruzsina Szep (Berlin Festival), Steve Zapp (International Talent Booking) and Julia Gudzent (Melt Festival) on the festival's annual battle for headliners at Where’s The Music in Sweden Feb. 12.

The first bash in Norrköping Feb. 12-14 had 400-plus delegates and 4,000 or so turned up for the shows scattered around 10 of the city’s clubs.

Those who follow these showcase conferences via the Facebook pages of the likes of Helen Sildna (Tallinn Music Week), Ruud Berends (Eurosonic), Paul Cheetham (Reeperbahn Festival), or UK lawyer and conference regular Ben Challis would have got a couple of early signals that the FKP Scorpio-produced gathering was a hit.

“It was extremely successful. Everybody loved it,” said FKP chief Folkert Koopmans, confirming the various social network posts. The German promoter hadn’t skimped on putting together an interesting and sometimes entertaining list of speakers. Aussie promoter Michael Chugg, long-standing London agent Paul Boswell with successful international acts like Ed Sheeran and James Blunt, Nordic Music Export chief Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdóttir, veteran Swedish manager Petri H. Lundén, CODA agency chief Rob Challice, and Julia Gudzent from Germany’s Melt and Berlin festivals were among them.

Swedish journalist Annah Björk, who works for Swedish daily Expressen and glossy mags such as Elle, chaired a panel on municipal support for festivals. This can be a touchy subject in Scandinavia, where Odense council’s $4.09 million support for FKP’s Tinderbox Festival has proved controversial, but it can also be a boost for tourism, create work opportunities and boost the local economy.

Apart from hosting Where The Music Is, Norrköping is also home to FKP’s Bravalla Festival, Sweden’s biggest annual festival. Sami Rumpunen, the new director of Finland’s Provinssirock Festival, now two-thirds owned by FKP, Norrköping city council chairman Lars Stjernkvist, and Odense city head of development Ronnie Hansen were among those on hand to thrash it out. If the showcase is to be platform for local talent, then Hello Saferide, Silvana Imam, and Tove Styrke are among the Swedish acts expected to fulfill the promise shown in Norrköping.