Showcase Festivals

From March 12-18,  2026, South By Southwest (SXSW) will take place in Austin, Texas. At SXSW – one of the largest showcase festivals in the world – artists and professionals from the music, film and tech industries meet organizers, investors and key players from the international creative industry.

The SXSW Interactive program is aimed at tech and start-up companies to showcase innovation and creativity to audiences and investors.

The SXSW Film & TV program is aimed at the audiovisual music industry worldwide. In addition to presenting films as part of the SXSW Film Festival, networking and business development are important goals for the film industry present in Austin.

As part of the SXSW Music Fest, evening SXSW showcases at numerous music clubs in the city offer the opportunity to discover new talent and network with potential international partners. Every year, around 2,000 showcases take place in Austin, 500 of which feature international acts. The showcases are curated by the SXSW booking team in close collaboration with other partners from the music industry.

From January 14 – 17, 2026, Europe’s largest showcase festival – ESNS – will take place in Groningen.
We will be on site again with wonderful acts from Germany.

With the aim of supporting musicians and festivals in their internationalisation, German Music Export by Initiative Musik is the official German representation at European Talent Exchange. The EU programme opens up new perspectives for all performing musicians at 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 European Talent 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 European Talent Exchange are made available through the budget of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).

One of the world’s largest music fairs, WOMEX, took place in Tampere, Finland this year from October 22-26, 2025.
The wide range of conference programs and showcases attracts over 2500 music professionals every year.
As part of our cooperation with WOMEX, we were present with our own booth and a German delegation.

From October 2.-4, 2025, the Austrian showcase festival Waves Vienna took place again in Vienna. In cooperation with the regional pop funding agencies Musicboard Berlin, popNRW, Pop-Büro Region Stuttgart, RockCity Hamburg and Verband für Popkultur in Bayern, we hosted our German Showcase and brought 10 wonderful acts from Germany to the stages of Vienna.

The Great Escape Festival took place in Brighton from May 14 – 17 and in addition to a colorful showcase program, there was also a conference for all music professionals with numerous networking opportunities – such as our ZEITGEIST reception, and showcase hosted together with RockCity Hamburg e.V., Musicboard Berlin, popNRW and Verband für Popkultur in Bayern.

jazzahead! took place from April 24 – 26 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. jazzahead! is an event organized by MESSE BREMEN, M3B GmbH, and takes place in Bremen, four days in April, since 2006.

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.

jazzahead! is funded by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media /German Music Export der Initiative Musik.

From February 12-15, 2025, the next edition of MENT Ljubljana took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. MENT 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. We were there with a delegation of music professionals and artists from Germany.