Eurosonic applications only open until the end of August—the biggest chance for Slovak and Czech music
Next Friday, 31 August, is the final day for musicians to fill in the Eurosonic 2019 application form at the festivalʼs website: https://esns.nl/play-at-esns. The largest platform presenting new music in Europe will offer an exceptionally large room for artists from Slovakia and the Czech Republic also thanks to Pohoda. Both the countries will nominate eight names to perform in the Netherlands. They will have the chance to showcase their work to many festival visitors, but in particular, to 5,000 delegates from influential agencies, festivals, clubs, and the media. We know in person the people responsible for choosing from all participants, and we can guarantee that they will listen to songs of all the artists. At the same time, we want to encourage representatives of minority genres. Punk rockers, metal bands, classical and experimental music composers, and representatives of folk, jazz, world music, and many other genres have the same (or even bigger) chances than indie bands and dance music producers.
20. August 2018
Eurosonic is the largest European launch pad for new bands. It was here where the careers of names such as Aurora, Dua Lipa, Hozier, Mø, and Royal Blood started. The opportunity will be given to eight bands from each country, and our artists will be able to gain one more slot thanks to RTVS (Slovak Radio and TV) (as a member of the European Broadcasting Union, they can recommend one name). The great news for our artists is also a great honor for Pohoda, which was picked by the representatives as a partner for the focus on music from Slovakia. The advisory board includes Pohoda CEO Michal Kaščák representing Slovakia and Márton Náray (CEO at Sound Czech / Czech Music Office) representing Czechia. Each year, Eurosonic picks the so-called focus countries: countries, whose music scene will be in the spotlight during the next festival edition. This way, the festival highlights musical diversity across the Old Continent. The main booker at Eurosonic, Robert Meijerink, says more about the decision to focus on Czechia and Slovakia: “We are keen to showcase the unique, high-quality music from these two neighbors. Although two of the youngest countries in Europe, they both have diverse and growing music scenes, a great history and lots of amazing music to be discovered.” Eurosonic CEO, Ruud Berends, emphasizes that this is the result of a long-term effort and participation of festivals and organizations from our countries in ETEP and CEETEP.
Another major showcase festival, Waves Vienna, has also announced its focus on artists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The festival released the second list of confirmed performers, including Slovak bands and artists such as Alapastel, Andrea Bučko, Bulp, Isama Zing, Papyllon, Says, and Stroon. The head of Waves of Vienna, Thomas Heher, and Eurosonicʼs main booking agent, Robert Meijerink, also attended the listening session at Pohoda 2018 a few weeks ago, with their reactions to a number of local artists being very positive. Major chances for the presentation of music of our countries come up symbolically around the time of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. The invitation also extends to all the fans of good music: tickets for ESNS 2019 are already available for sale. We are looking forward to you at the concerts of great Slovak and Czech bands at the Eurosonic Noorderslag 2019 festival. See the atmosphere of the festival through the eyes of an artist in a short video from this yearʼs performance of the band Tolstoys: