Showcase Festivals

As part of a our cooperation with Primavera Pro we have the opportunity to present three german acts within the showcase program of the upcoming festival edition.
Primavera Pro will take place from 29 May – 2 June in Barcelona.

Taking place in Brighton, England from May 15 – 18, 2024, The Great Escape Festival is the new music festival where 500 emerging artists from around the world will perform at more than 30 walk-in venues in the city and at a pop-up festival site on Brighton Beach. In addition to a colorful showcase program, there is also a conference for all music professionals with numerous networking opportunities.

SHARPE Festival will take place from April 25 – 27, 2024 in Bratislava. Promising Slovak and international artists of various genres will perform their showcases. Through a diverse conference program, music professionals from all over Europe can learn from each other and discuss the latest topics and trends in the music industry in panels, workshops, presentations and networking sessions.

As part of a cooperation between GERMAN MUSIC EXPORT and SHARPE, four acts from Germany will be presented in the 2024 showcase program.

jazzahead! takes place in Bremen and is the world’s largest meeting place for the jazz industry, around 2,800 international trade participants, with its own international showcase program and accompanying festival. With its focus on jazz and the scope of the showcase concerts, jazzahead! has earned worldwide reputation.

Since 2012, the export module for German jazz, the German Jazz Expo, takes place at jazzahead!,  Jazz made in Germany receives national and international visibility at the event. The German Jazz Expo includes eight annual jury-selected showcase concerts by German bands, to which international promoters and media representatives are specifically invited, the large communal area German Market and a conference program with topics most relevant to the scene.

Click here to get to the jazzahead! showcase program.

For more information on our presentation at South by Southwest (SXSW) click here.

MENT Ljubljana is one of the leading showcase festivals and music conferences in Central and Eastern Europe and the largest event of its kind in the region. The tenth edition took place this year from February 21 – 24,  2024 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In addition to showcases by a large number of artists from all over Europe, there was an extensive international conference programme attended by professionals from over 30 countries. As part of a cooperation between GERMAN MUSIC EXPORT and MENT, three acts from Germany were presented in the showcase program in 2024. In addition, music professionals from Germany who want to expand their export activities in the (Eastern) European market had the opportunity to take part in the event as part of the German delegation and network through specific networking formats.

With the aim of supporting musicians and festivals in their internationalisation, the Initiative Musik is the official German representation at ESNS Exchange. The EU programme opens up new perspectives for all performing musicians at Eurosonic (ESNS) in Groningen (Netherlands).

The showcase festival takes place every year in January and is one of the industry meetings for the international music scene. Selected bands get the unique chance to showcase themselves to an international audience of professionals. Concerts arranged through Eurosonic are funded by the EU programme ESNS Exchange. For the participating festivals, this creates a strong additional incentive to book European newcomers.

The project funds for the participation of the Initiative Musik in ESNS Exchange are made available through the budget of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).

As part of our cooperation with BIME, we brought three acts from Germany to the stages of the Spanish Showcase Festival. Three artists or bands had the chance to present their music and talent to an international audience of professionals, especially from Europe and Latin America. In addition to the live performances, there was the opportunity to take part in the three days of the BIME Congress and to network with professionals from all areas of the music industry.

The bands JEMBAA GROOVE, AMISTAT and ÄTNA had the chance to present their music and talent to an international audience of professionals, especially from Europe and Latin America. In addition to the live performances, there was the opportunity to take part in the three days of the BIME trade congress and network with professionals from all areas of the music industry. The participation of professionals from Germany such as UP.Booking, Mittelgrün Reisen, Heartfelt Management, L.A.U.T.H. Records, GMO The Label, Second Hand Artists Management and Speed Repeat GmbH was supported that year through our funding programme GO! Export.

From October 25 – 29, WOMEX, one of the world’s largest music conferences, took place in Spain. Over 2000 professionals from the music industry connected here and nearly 300 international artists played their showcases for international audiences.

With support from the International Tour Funding, Elshan Ghasimi performed. Tomato Production was also on site at the festival and received support from GO! Export.

The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) took place again this year in the Netherlands from October 18 – 22 . The focus of the ADE was on electronic music. There has also been conferences, workshops and lectures for professionals and artists.
This year, our International Tour Funding supported the artists ÄTNA, LISA LUKA, AFAR, SYLVIE MAZIARZ, BiMän and KOMFORTRAUSCHEN, who had the opportunity to present their talent to an international audience at showcase festivals. As supported professionals SPRINGSTOFF, HenMountain Musicproduction, Ilona Diefenbach and Marina Zakharevitch participated in the festival and conference program.

The international showcase festival Waves Vienna took place again from September 7-9, 2023. In cooperation with the regional pop music funding bodies Musicboard Berlin, popNRW, Pop-Büro – Region Stuttgart, RockCity Hamburg and Verband für Popkultur in Bayern, we will present artists and bands from Germany.

• Becky Sikasa (North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Damona (Bavaria)
• Ferge + Fisherman + Nujakasha (Bavaria)
• Flawless Issues (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
• Güner Künier (Berlin)
• Meagre Martin (Berlin)
• Mele (Baden-Wuerttemberg)
• Moon Mates (Bavaria)
• Rauchen (Hamburg)
• Salomea (North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Shybits (Berlin)
• Willow Parlo (Hamburg)

With the acts Berq, Dolphin Love, Jamila & The Other Heroes, Loki, Serpentin and Thala, further artists from Germany have been part of the Waves Vienna showcase programme.

Delegates got to meet the bands at the speed meeting session.