It’s never been harder for new artists to make an impact. At times, the sheer scale of the challenges can be daunting – building an audience, touring, dealing with streaming systems, all adds up to a great deal of complexity.
The success of ESNS Exchange, however, has helped to cut through all that. Focussed on live music, the European Talent Exchange Programme has its roots back in 2003, and aims to bring together a variety of European festivals to create a new talent network.
Formerly known as ETEP, ESNS Exchange turns 20 this year, and boasts two decades of success. Artists such as shame, Kodaline, and even Dua Lipa owe a debt of gratitude to the project, which helps musicians take their art across borders.
To date, the hugely successful ESNS Exchange has supported 2,145 European artists hailing from 35 countries, enabling them to perform at 5,288 shows across 187 partner festivals in 44 countries.
As Dua Lipa put it: “ESNS was a massive step in my career…”
Toasting 20 years of action, ESNS recently hosted a special panel at BIME festival in Bilbao.
Robert Meijerink (Head of Programme at ESNS and Booker for ESNS Exchange) comments:
It is an honour to support and present the diversity of the live music scene in Europe by kickstarting the careers of many new artists for 20 years by Exchange, the European Talent Exchange Programme.
With Exchange the role of the ESNS Conference and Festival has been put to the next level. Exchange as a project connects all parts of Europe and helps artists grow beyond local, cross European borders and around the world. This is impossible without the strong cooperation with Yourope, our great partner festivals, the export offices, the partners of the European Broadcasting Union, the European Commission and of course all the amazing artists from Europe. We’re looking forward to building the future of the European music scene and ESNS Exchange’s role in it.
ESNS returns to Groningen, the Netherlands next year, running between January 17th – 20th.
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Photo Credit: Ben Houdijk
