Dragons Get Second Wind

Estonian indie-rock act Ewert and The Two Dragons appears to have gotten a second wind and surged back into the lead in this year’s European Talent Exchange Programme.

Having temporarily lost the lead to Spector, which is doing best of the three UK acts in the Top 10, The Dragons have pulled in three more festivals and now top the list with 11 shows.

Spector and Dope D.O.D. have nine shows apiece, and The Computers – also from the UK – has eight.

The Top 10 have between them picked up 82 slots at this summer’s European festivals through the ETEP programme.

Overall this year’s ETEP has so far resulted in the 50 or so ETEP festivals, which include many of Europe’s biggest outdoors, confirming a total of 236 shows to 88 of the acts that appeared at this year’s showcase in Groningen, The Netherlands.

That smashes the previous record set in 2009, when 75 acts shared 214 shows.

The new Central European Talent Exchange Programme, an ETEP offshoot set up with European Union funding, has so far seen 12 acts secure 15 shows between them.

Grimus from Romania is doing best with three shows on festivals in Serbia, Czech Republic and Hungary.