Irish, British acts top preliminary ETEP results

Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. and south London group Black Midi lead the way in the first results of Eurosonic Noorderslag’s (ESNS) European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP), with ten and seven festival slots booked respectively.

ETEP aims to promote European music across the world, supporting the booking of emerging European talent at festivals in 37 countries. Two months on from the 33rd edition of ESNS, promising acts from the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belarus and Belgium have all secured multiple festival shows.

51 out of the 129 Etep festivals have released some line-up information, with 143 ETEP shows already confirmed across festivals including the Great Escape (20 ETEP acts), Ment Ljubljana (6 ETEP acts) and Lollapalooza Berlin (5 ETEP acts).

“ETEP selection results are always a surprise – no-one can predict the ten most booked acts,” says Robert Meijerink, head of programme and programme manager of European talent at ESNS.

“The first results prove that festivals across the world are interested in putting on a wide variety of different styles and genres by European artists”

“I am really pleased to see how ETEP is helping the circulation of European artists in the live sector already so early in the year. The first results also prove that festivals across the world are interested in putting on a wide variety of different styles and genres by European artists,” adds Meijerink.

The initiative enjoyed a record-breaking festival season last year, with ETEP acts playing 457 shows at festivals around the world. British indie band Superorganism finished the summer at the top of the leaderboard, playing 20 gigs in total, beating the record set the previous year by London post-punk band Shame.

Since launching in 2003, ETEP has facilitated 4,144 shows by 1,531 acts in 37 countries. The programme has helped to initiate successful careers for artists including Calvin Harris, Franz Ferdinand, James Blake, the Kooks and the XX. More recently, ETEP has supported the first international shows of acts such as Idles, Aurora and Dua Lipa.

A list of the ten most booked ETEP acts so far can be found below:

1) Fontaines D.C. (Ie) – 10 shows

2) Black Midi (GB) – 7 shows

3) Flohio (GB) – 6 shows

4) Pip Blom (NL) – 5 shows

5) The Murder Capital (Ie) – 4 shows

6) Iris Gold (Dk) – 4 shows

7) Yegor Zabelov (By) – 3 shows

8) Whispering Sons (Be) – 3 shows

9) Lewsberg (NL) – 3 shows

10) Whenyoung (Ie) – 3 shows

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