German Reeperbahn Festival Completes This Year’s Program

Lisa Meinen – Alice Merton
The certified Pollstar Hotstar performed at Reeperbahn Festival last year

Some 600 performances by around 500 bands and solo artists from around the world await visitors of this year’s Reeperbahn Festival, which takes place in Hamburg, Germany, Sept. 19-22.

200 of those artists are going to be performing in some 50 showcases, put on by companies and organizations from various European countries, including Germany’s GEMA, the music export offices of Austria and Switzerland, PIAS and FKP Scorpio, Warner Music and the always well-visited Dutch Impact Party.

This year’s partner country France presents some of its most promising talents at various occasions. Le Vertigo, Okay Monday, Cardri and Awir Leon take the stage on opening night at the Karatekeller in Hamburg’s legendary Molotow club. The day after, at the same venue, but upstairs at the Sky Bar, it’s Foé, Kimberose, L’Impératrice, Kazy Lambist and Thylacine.

It’s the thirteenth edition of Reeperbahn Festival, and the French export office has been a partner from the start. Marc Thonon, CEO Le Bureau Export, said, “2018 will be the height of this longstanding cross-cultural collaboration with even more sessions, meetings and opportunities for French music industry professionals to share their work and experience.

“It will be a great pleasure for France to be the feature country at Reeperbahn Festival next year when Le Bureau Export celebrates its 25th anniversary of helping French and international music professionals work together to develop made-in-France artists around the world.”

Florian Trykowski – The Consolers
During four days in September, there

One of the goals of Reeperbahn Festival is, of course, to connect the performing artists and their teams with as many business professionals as possible. Of the 42,000 expected visitors at Reeperbahn Festival, some 5,000 will be working in the industry. And many of them will be walking from venue to venue, from rustic bars to old churches to the spectacular Elbphilharmonie concert hall, on the lookout for artists that are ready to perform at next year’s festival season.

There’s a lot else going on at Reeperbahn Festival, not just on the busy streets that run along and across Hamburg’s so-called Vergnügungsmeile, where business and pleasure often seem the same thing.

The day-time program is dedicated to panels, workshops and keynotes on a variety of issues.  While the usual bugbears of the live, recorded music and publishing sectors will certainly be addressed, program director Detlef Schwarte also recognized the fact, that the music industry is often a mirror of society.

“Here, too, we face the demand on artists to take clear political positions, the question what art is (not) allowed to do, the claim to overcome the gender gap, the way of handling the change in the use of media, and increasingly stronger economic pressure on the one hand, but also all sorts of suggested solutions and future vision on the other. Add to these topics the opportunity to experience the most thrilling new international bands and artists live in small or medium-sized clubs, you will end up at the heart of Reeperbahn Festival,” a statement from the event’s organizers reads.

Eight chosen acts are up for the so-called Anchor, an award that was launched by the festival in 2016. The list of nominees includes Anna Aaron (Switzerland), Blanco White, Freya Ridings (both UK), Faces On TV, Tamino (both Belgium), Frum (Faroer Islands), Hope (Germany) and Tiwayo (France).

The jury surrounding iconic producer Tony Visconti will choose a winner at the award ceremony on the last day of the festival.