Eurosonic’s Happy Anniversary

Eurosonic-Noorderslag is such a big thing in Groningen that, after 25 years, the city has given its founders a medal for it.

Co-founders Peter Smidt and Peter Sikkema were presented with the Medal of Honour of the City of Groningen at a special ceremony Jan. 14. The citation says they’ve brought “outstanding merits to the Groningen community.”

This year Eurosonic-Noorderslag celebrated its special anniversary by attracting more fans to its showcase festival, more delegates to its conference and even more media attention than any of the previous editions.

The festival pulled 33,000 across three days, almost double what it did in 2010. The 15,000 extra visitors were mainly accommodated by the construction of a new free-entry outdoor stage area on the city’s Grote Markt, the main square that’s within easy walking distance of the other venues.

The three-day conference, which covers a range of music business topics but largely focuses on festivals, attracted a record-breaking 3,000 delegates.

There were 187 journalists and other assorted media people, including reps from 24 European radio stations. Parts of the festival were broadcast live on radio in many European countries, including Ireland, France, Belgium, Italy and Sweden.

More than 200 acts played across the three dozen or so stages at De Oosterpoort, where the conference is staged, and the other venues dotted around the heart of the university city.

Their audiences included talent buyers from the 58 festivals that subscribe to the European Talent Exchange Programme, all of them looking for what may turn out to be the next big thing.

Information picked up from a quick straw poll of the talent scouts suggests Selah Sue, who lives a stone’s throw from Belgium’s Rock Werchter festival site, will be getting booked for other festivals in other countries.

The other acts getting mentioned in dispatches included UK acts such as Pulled Apart By Horses, The Joy Formidable, The Vaccines and Yuck.

Scandinavian acts have tended to do well at ETEP and this year those getting attention included Agnes Obell from Denmark, Norwegian metal band Kvelertak and Finnish electro trio KXP.

Others creating a buzz included Spanish acts Crystal Fighters and Delorean.

Casting the net wider and trawling around the old Eastern Bloc would bring in Cuibul, a four-piece from the Republic Of Moldova that formed in 1991, split up for years and then re-formed in 2009. Akaga is reported to be the most popular band in Bulgaria.

Eurosonic-Noorderslag and ETEP’s importance to The Netherlands was rammed home by national daily De Volkskrant featuring it in a 40-page pull-out section.

The panel subjects included statistics provided by Virtual Festivals, which said – among other things – that 72 percent of fans have never taken drugs at a festival. Regrettably, no statistics were available regarding how many of them were telling the truth.

Promoters reacted calmly to Pollstar figures showing box office revenues dropped more than 10 percent in 2010, although the calm may have been at least partly down to the room being full of festival organisers.

Eurosonic-Noorderslag was in Groningen, The Netherlands, Jan. 12-15.