Showcase Festivals

jazzahead! will take 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 March 7-15,  2025, South By Southwest (SXSW) took 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 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.

It’s that time again in January! From January 15 – 18, 2025, Europe’s largest showcase festival – ESNS – took place in Groningen.
We were on site again with 17 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 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 European Talent Exchange are made available through the budget of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).

The Spanish showcase festival BIME (Bizkaia International Music Experience) took place in Bilbao from October 29 to November 1, 2024. In addition to showcases by artists from around the world, there was also an extensive conference program. The event was attended not only by professionals from Spain and Europe, but also by numerous participants from Latin America.
We were there with a German delegation and with wonderful acts from Germany.

One of the world’s largest music fairs, WOMEX, took place in Manchester, UK this year from October 23-27, 2024.
The wide range of conference programs and showcases attracts over 2500 music professionals every year.
As part of our cooperation for this year’s 30th edition of WOMEX, we were present with our own presence area and a German delegation of more than 20 music professionals and three acts from Germany.

The international showcase festival Waves Vienna took place again from September 05-07, 2024. In cooperation with the regional pop music funding bodies Musicboard Berlin, Kreatives Sachsen, popNRW, Pop-Büro – Region Stuttgart, RockCity Hamburg und Verband für Popkultur in Bayern, we hosted our German Showcase and brought acts from Germany to Vienna’s Showcase stages.

As part of a our cooperation with Primavera Pro we had the opportunity to present three german acts within the showcase program of Primavera Pro 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 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 was also a conference for all music professionals with numerous networking opportunities.
Through our International Tour Funding program, we were able to support four German acts (Aka Kellz, BROCKHOFF, Ferge x Fisherman and Philine Sonny) on their trip to Brighton this year.
These acts performed at the ZEITGEIST Showcase, which is organized by RockCity Hamburg e.V., Musicboard Berlin, popNRW and the Verband für Popkultur in Bayern.

SHARPE took place from April 25 – 27, 2024 in Bratislava. Promising Slovak and international artists of various genres performed their showcases. Through a diverse conference program, music professionals from all over Europe learned from each other and discussed 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 were presented in the 2024 showcase program.