Germany: $4M Festival Funding Secured, Promoters & Venues Back Live Events College

$4 Million For Boutique Festivals

Initiative Musik, Germany’s federal funding body for popular music and jazz, is allocating €4 million ($4.1 million) to help 127 of the country’s festivals in the current challenging economy.

The money will go to festivals in all of Germany’s 16 states, with a focus on regional events making a contribution to the local cultural diversity. 75% of the festivals that received funding are from non-urban regions.

The events’ sustainability, accessibility, and diversity efforts were all taken into account when deciding, where the money should go to. Recipients include Medival Open Air in Thuringia, a unique mix of music, history, and political education; Berlin Atonal, which, according to Initiative Musik, makes an important contribution to cultural innovation with its focus on avant-garde music, interdisciplinary art forms and accessibility; BallerBunt Festival in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which impresses with its consistent promotion of young talent, and gives young people responsibility both on and off stage; Krawall Summer Festival in Lower Saxony, which focuses on diversity, participation and safe spaces for underrepresented voices.

A total of 575 festivals had applied from all over Germany, with 127 projects awarded funding. There’s great demand among the small and medium-sized festivals, in particular: more than 94% of the applications came from festivals with up to 15,000 visitors.

The €4 million funding, minus the costs for running this initiative, which stand at around €380,000, Pollstar was told, are allocated based on an assessment of the the applications submitted. A maximum funding amount of up to €50,000 was distributed in each case.

BDKV & EVVC Back D.College

German venue operator and event services company D.Live made headlines towards the end of last year, when it launched the first Bachelor degree course tailored specifically to people seeking a career in the events industry together with the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.

Now, the German promoters association BDKV and the European association of venues EVVC have partnered on the so-called D.College, which launches its first course – a ‘Bachelor of Live Entertainment and ee’ – on Sept. 1. The course aims to offer practical training for future event specialists, and prepare them for a constantly changing market.

The partnership with BDKV and EVVC will provide students with valuable insights into the industry, practical learning content and direct access to an extensive network of event professionals and companies. The two associations support D.College with their “expertise, their members and practice-oriented teaching content,” according to a press release.

BDKV CEO Johannes Everke said, a dedicated course like this Bachelor’s degree was an important building block in making the German live biz fit for the future in a sustainable manner.

To achieve this, added EVVC CEO René Tumler, practical training led by event professionals was essential.

D.Live CEO Michael Brill said, a specialized course for the GSA region was “more than overdue,” and added, “the fact that our industry has now succeeded in developing and designing this Bachelor’s degree ‘on its own’ shows the innovation and strength of our business.”

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