Long queues in front of the “Vera” in Groningen. Next door is a box-shaped broadcast van that the WDR “Rockpalast” sent to the Eurosonic Festival in the Netherlands. Maximum attention for Chloe Slater. With her interplay of storms of feedback and fine guitar pop, the 21-year-old from Manchester has already built up an impressive fan base.
On her EP “You Can’t Put A Price On Fun” she takes an illusion-free look at the post-Brexit era in Great Britain. For decades, the ESNS has been a central showcase for young talent, getting bookers and agents in the mood for the upcoming festival season. With 320 bands and soloists, it is of course an almost impossible parkour. Especially since the export offices of various EU countries still attract visitors with “receptions” and special shows. The “quick and dirty” performances during the day in the legendary “Plato” record store are also extremely popular. Without a running plan, as a colleague from the livebiz magazine “Pollstar” goes, you wander through the streets of Groningen like a chicken with its head cut off. Lost in Music.
At least Chloe Slater doesn’t have the problem of being overlooked in the large selection. In oversized jeans and an XL T-shirt, she sings, fueled by an ultra-young band of boys, about the class system and the bleak situation in the kingdom. Songs like “Nothing Shines On This Island” are not a reinvention of rock and roll, but rather a high-energy drone that connects generations. After their compact show, selfie and autograph hunters aged 16 to 66 stand at the edge of the stage.
Bouquet of diversity, between Latin grooves and pop power
The central award “Music Moves Europe” (MME) tries to bring some structure into the European jungle with its jury and pre-selection. As in the previous year, when the Frenchwoman Zaho de Sagazin rightly won everything, the class of 2025 performed at a high level. The Spanish songwriter Judelinethe French-Cameroonian Afro-Souler Yamê or the Irish folk rock trio Kingfishr are already traveling a lot. Also for the Stuttgart synth duo Room90 (which came away empty-handed) it was a pleasing appreciation for the club’s career to date.
But the gala in the stately Stadsschouwburg Theater was unable to really set an example in the sense of “the next big thing”. There was a bouquet of diversity to admire, between Latin grooves and pop power. The prize money between 5,000 and 10,000 euros is used to support the festival and tour. Support on the move, on the hard way to the light.
The export offices that send bands and artists to the ESNS definitely do not want to use common clichés. The busy Iceland, for example, renounced any reference to elves and sent with the Kraut TripHoper Sunna Margaret or the Byrds-like chorus band Super sport idiosyncratic approaches into the race. Portugal sent Raquel Martins and Marta Pereira da Costa as soul/folk heroines in the sacred atmosphere of the local concert churches.
The “Maas” is a popular venue thanks to its double stage in the cafe and in the large hall. There the bearish UK duo became Big Specialwhich had already won on Rolling Stone Beach, celebrated with heckling and pogo waves. Pretty “outstanding”, and not just geographically: The trio Rap & Vogue from the Belarusian capital Minsk in the Minerva art school. With their theatrical performance “The Abduction of Europe” they play on all sorts of Euro sound clichés. They sing in German, Spanish, (White) Russian, Polish and French. An extreme electropop revue with shrill performance.
There was a lasting buzz in the multifunctional “Oosterport” congress center, where the background of the music scene was illuminated in panels and lectures during the day. There was a lot to be heard here about crumbling certainties. The “Superstar Economy & The Dynamics of Ticketing” panel highlighted a growing discrepancy in the live business. “It’s a tough economic situation for most of us,” said Rob Sealy from the “Open Stage” platform, summing up the situation.
Tour operations torpedoed by bureaucracy
In addition to the octopus-like financial investors, there are political dangers, the effects of which are becoming increasingly massive. Codruta Vulcu from the Romanian festival ARTmania in Sibiu (Hermannstadt) knew, just like Michal Kascak from Pohoda in Slovakia, about the growing political pressure from right-wing politicians who want to ban events or intervene in program planning. “It feels like we’ve just been set back 25 years,” said Vulcu.
But new battles need to be fought not only in Eastern Europe, where many festivals first emerged. The “Post-Brexit Pop” panel showed what damage the ideology of isolation has caused to music; exactly five years after the British left the European Union. Dave Webster from the trade union organization “Musicians Union” reported in numerous anecdotes how normal touring operations are torpedoed by bureaucracy. Pages of forms or the reloading of tour trucks according to the requirements of “cabotage”, a hate word for all logisticians to and from Great Britain. “What should be directed against migration ultimately destroys exchange and trade.”