Eastern Europe Wins Big At European Festival Awards 2019

As is tradition, the annual European Festival Awards kicked, off Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, Holland, on Jan. 15.  Half of the trophies, if you exclude the lifetime achievement award, which had been announced prior to the ceremony, went to individuals and companies from Eastern Europe.

The 11th EFA edition was the first organized by European festival association Yourope,  after co-hosting it with the UK Festival Awards company in the past.

Reeperbahn Festival won the first award of the night, Best Indoor Festival. The German talent festival and music conference will celebrate its 15th anniversary, Sept. 16-19.

Next up was the Brand Activation Award, a category invented by Yourope’s European Marketing and Communications Group (EMAC). The award celebrates the most creative sponsorship idea of the previous festival season, and this year went to Open’er Festival Poland and Stranger Things. The Netflix show promoted its third season at the festival with cast members Finn Wolfhard and Caleb McLaughlin visiting Open’er 2019 for a Q&A session.

Lucy Dickins, who joined WME to head to company’s UK music division, last year, was named Agent of the Year.

No Sleep Festival Serbia, the sixth event created by the makers of Exit, won Best New Festival. It marks the forth European Festival award for the Exit group. Its flagship event Exit won Best Major Festival in 2017.

Chris Kemp, for many years the head and soul of Yourope’s Event Safety Group (YES Group), presented Balaton Sound from Hungary with the Health & Safety Innovation Award.

It marked Kemp’s last Eurosonic as head of YES Group, as he will officially retire. A large group of colleagues and friends came on stage to thank him for his work. “We owe you a lot,” said Henrik Bondo Nielsen of Roskilde Festival, who ran YES Group alongside Kemp, in a short speech. “It has been fantastic to know you. We are going to miss you. Thank you very much for your journey with us.”

Kemp, who was clearly taken aback, as he didn’t expect the surprise, said: “There’s one thing I’ll miss massively. This is my family. I may see them once a year, but they’re my friends. These are people you can trust. People, who are making sure people can feel safe at events. I love you all. Thank you.”

Ide Koffeman, CEO of Mojo Concerts, last year’s winner in the category Promoter of the Year, announced this year’s winner, which turned out to be Wepromote from Switzerland, who had a stellar year 2019, including a sold out stadium show by Rammstein. 

“Picking the right bill can make or break a festival,” said the night’s host Claire O’Neill  (A Greener Festival) alongside Gordon Masson (IQ Magazine), when presenting the nominees for Line-up of the Year. The trophy went to Glastonbury Festival in the end, which featured The Killers, The Cure, Stormzy, Kylie Minogue, Janet Jackson and many more on the bill in 2019.

Billie Eilish won the Newcomer of the Year award, but wasn’t on site to pick it up, neither was anyone from her team.

Yourope’s Take A Stand campaign, which encourages social cohesion in a divided world, also presented an award at the EFAs. This year’s Take A Stand award went to German festival Das Fest, one of more than 100 festivals, live companies and associations that have joined the campaign since it launched in March 2017.

Other winners of the night included Electric Castle from Romania (Best Medium Sized Festival), OpenAir St.Gallen (The Green Operations Award), Jazz in the Park from Romania (Best Small Festival), and Codruta Vulcu from Romania (Award for Excellence and Passion),  who said: “This award belongs to the entire Romanian music industry,” in a time when the country is going through massive political turmoil.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen, founders of Wacken Open Air, Germany.

On stage to present the award was Doro, the Queen of Metal, who has played the Holy Ground, as Wacken is known to its disciples,  more than 20 times in the festival’s 30-year history. The singer told the audience how she first met the Wacken founders: “I couldn’t find the village, we only saw farmland and cowbells. So I ran towards a farmer in my high heels, asking him where Wacken was.”

The farmer guided Doro and her band’s double-decker tour bus to the festival site on his tractor. “It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Only 2,000 people, but a big stage, big PA. A couple of years later it was already 30,000.”

Hübner picked up the award, commenting that is was better to win a lifetime achievement award at a relatively young age of 53 than to never win it. He thanked his family “for putting up with our crazy ideas for the past 30 years,” and also thanked Wacken Open Air’s new financial backers Superstruct for investing in the next era of Wacken.

To round out the ceremony, a round of pink champagne was handed out to the audience, in honour of Pinkpop festival, which celebrates it 50th anniversary this year.

Live performances came from Bobby Oroza (Finland) and Maris Bear (Switzerland).

Full shortlist with all winners below:

The Brand Activation Award

Presented by: EMAC

Lowlands (The Netherlands) & Rabobank (Brasserie 2050)

Øya Festivalen (Norway) & Fortum (The Green Rider)

Sziget Festival (Hungary) & IBIS (IBIS Music)

Untold (Romania) & KFC (Haunted Camping)

We Love Green (France) & Back Market (Back Market x We Love Green Circular)

The Take a Stand Award

Presented by: Take a Stand

Awake (Romania)

Festival Svobody (Czech Republic)

Orange Blossom Special (Germany)

Pol’and’Rock (Poland)

The Green Operations Award

Presented by: Go Group

Electric Castle Festival (Romania)

Øya Festivalen (Norway)

PortAmérica (Spain)

Roskilde Festival (Denmark)

We Love Green (France)

The Health & Safety Innovation Award

Presented by: YES Group

Happiness Festival (Germany)

Pohoda Festival (Slovakia)

Wat en Schlick Festival (Germany)

Promoter of the Year

Alter Art (Poland)

Festival Republic (United Kingdom)

FKP Scorpio (Germany)

Goodlive (Germany)

MCT Berlin (Germany)

Pohoda Festival (Slovakia)

Primavera Sound (Spain)

Ruisrock (Finland)

Wacken / ICS (Germany)

Agent of the Year

Presented by: IQ Magazine

Alex Bruford (ATC Live)

Angus Baskerville (13 Artists)

Ian Huffam (X-Ray Touring)

Kiki Ressler (KKT)

Maria May (CAA)

Mike Malak (Paradigm)

Natasha Bent (Paradigm)

Paul Wilson (CAA)

Rob Challice (Paradigm)

The Award for Excellence and Passion

Alex Hardee

Barrie Marshall

Ben Challis

Codruta Vulcu
Daniel Fontana

Eric van Eerdenburg

Folkert Koopmans
Holger Jan Schmidt

Kim Bloem

Mikolaj Ziolkowski

Best Indoor Festival

Presented by: eps

Blues in Hell (Norway)

FOCUS Wales (Wales, UK)

Hamburg Metal Dayz (Germany)

Let it Roll Winter (Czech Republic)

MENT Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Mithra Jazz à Liège (Belgium)

Prognosis Festival (The Netherlands)

Sudwave – Festival & Convention (Italy)

Taksirat Festival (Macedonia)

Newcomer of the Year

Presented by: Eurosonic Noorderslag

Black Midi (UK)

Fontaines D.C. (IRL)

Idles (UK)

Jessie Reyez (CA)

Lizzo (US)

Rosalía (ESP)

Sam Fender (UK)

Sea Girls (UK)

Slowthai (UK)

Line-Up of the Year

Lollapalooza Berlin (Germany)

Lowlands (The Netherlands)

Open’er Festival (Poland)

Pohoda Festival (Slovakia)

Primavera Sound (Spain)

Pukkelpop (The Netherlands)

Rock Werchter (Belgium)

Sziget Festival (Hungary)

Wacken (Germany)

Best New Festival

Afronation (Portugal)

FEST Festival (Poland)

Jika Jika (Northern Ireland)

Mystic Festival (Poland)

REVOLT (Germany)

Best Small Festival

Arsenal Fest (Serbia)

Leffingeleuren (Belgium)

Maifeld Derby (Germany)

No Sleep Festival (Serbia)

Roadburn Festival (The Netherlands)

SHARPE Festival (Slovakia)

Szene Openair (Austria)

Tauron Nowa Muzyka Katowice (Poland)

Wacken Winter Nights (Germany)

Best Medium-Sized Festival

Presented by: Universe

Balaton Sound (Hungary)

Down The Rabbit Hole (The Netherlands)

Let it Roll (Czech Republic)

Melt Festival (Germany)

OFF Festival Katowice (Poland)

Orange Warsaw Festival (Poland)

Pohoda Festival (Slovakia)

Sea Dance Festival (Montenegro)

We Love Green (France)

Best Major Festival

Lowlands (The Netherlands)

Exit Festival (Serbia)

FM4 Frequency (Austria)

HELLFEST (France)

Lollapalooza Berlin (Germany)

Nova Rock Festival (Austria)

Pukkelpop (Belgium)

Rock Werchter (Belgium)

Sziget Festival (Hungary)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen, founders of Wacken Open Air, Germany