Florence Road Lead European Talent Exchange With 9 Festival Bookings

The European Talent Exchange has presented the first results of 2026 with 106 shows confirmed for 61 artists at 39 partners festivals.

The European Talent Exchange originally launched in 2003 as ETEP (European Talent Exchange Program), funded by the EU’s Creative Europe Program. The essence of the program: hundreds of festival bookers check out new acts at ESNS in Groningen, Netherlands, each year, and book them on the spot. With some 130 festivals present at ESNS each year, the exposure is potentially significant.

This year, Florence Road from Ireland have already lined up nine international bookings, including, among others, Primavera Sound (Spain), Rock Werchter (Belgium), Southside Festival (Germany) and Y Not Festival (The United Kingdom).

The band’s lead singer and guitarist Lily Aron commented, “To go somewhere like Eurosonic as an emerging artist and walk out with so many incredible opportunities across Europe speaks volumes about ESNS. The European Talent Exchange gave us further momentum that’s still building. From playing in Groningen to some of the biggest festival stages out there, for any band, that kind of impact is huge.”

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Dressed Like Boys from Belgium have so far confirmed 5 festival performances, and will take the stage at Best Kept Secret (The Netherlands), Immergut Festival (Germany) and Le Printemps de Bourges (France), among others.

Dove Ellis, also from Ireland, will appear at 5 international festivals, such as Lowlands (The Netherlands) and Poplar Festival (Italy). Max Baby from France secured four bookings, including Les Nuits Botanique (Belgium) and The Great Escape (The United Kingdom), which goes down in May.

Joshua Idehen from Sweden has also secured 4 international festival bookings, with appearances at End of the Road (The United Kingdom), OFF Festival Katowice (Poland) and Roskilde Festival (Denmark).

Idehen commented, “We had two magical days in Groningen, our first two gigs of 2026. You go into these showcase festivals hoping the right people think well of you; to have a whole concert hall amping to your music was a blessing, a real blessing.”

Other artists enjoying strong international momentum are The New Eves (UK), ROYA (Denmark), Turbo Trans Turisti (Serbia), Camille Yembe (Belgium), Eileen Alister (Switzerland), Neon Lies (Croatia), Min Taka (The Netherlands) and Hania Derej (Poland).

Festivals participating in the European Talent Exchange include MENT Ljubljana (Slovenia, 9 bookings), Rock Werchter (Belgium, 6 bookings), Best Kept Secret (Netherlands, 5 bookings), Primavera Sound (Spain, 3 bookings), OFF Festival Katowice (Poland, 2 bookings), OpenAir St. Gallen (Switzerland, 3 bookings) and Immergut Festival (Germany, 1 booking).

The European Talent Exchange closely collaborates with European festival association Yourope, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), 31 media partners, and 26 music export offices.

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