European Festival Awards announce lifetime achievement award

The European Festival Awards has announced that this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Juhani Merimaa, an industry stalwart credited with bringing rock and roll to Finland.

With a career that spans over five decades, Merimaa has been involved in running Finland’s most legendary music venue Tavastia Klubi from the 70s to 2023 when he stepped down from the position of promoter and CEO.

He has also played a central role in Finland’s festival scene, as a co-founder of Ankkarock and former promoter and CEO of Ruisrock.

Merimaa also promoted the first edition of Tuska Open Air at Tavastia and later became a partner and board member of the now Superstruct-managed festival.

While he is now mostly retired from everyday business, he is still active as a mentor for many in the Finnish music industry and previously appeared on one of Finland’s most popular music TV shows “Tähdet tähdet” where he was a jury member for five seasons.

Juhani Merimaa is an industry stalwart credited with bringing rock and roll to Finland

Last year’s Lifetime Achievement award went to former Eurosonic conference chief Ruud Berends.

Merimaa will receive the award at the 15 January 2025 ceremony at de Oosterpoort in Groningen, The Netherlands, on the first day of ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag). The shortlists for 13 of the ceremony’s categories have also been announced and can be seen here.

ESNS recently added a new wave of speakers to the conference programme including ATC Live’s Alex Bruford, Mad Cool’s Cindy Castillo, FKP Scorpio’s Rauha Kyyrö, Øyafestivalen’s Claes Olsen, Spotify’s Annika Walsh and BBC Music Introducing’s Kelly Betts.

The 2025 programme focuses on topics such as the impact of AI on the music industry, the future of streaming, achieving sustainability goals for festivals by 2030, the fairness of dynamic pricing, activism among artists and festivals, the effect of private equity on business, and the devastating impact of rising costs and lack of personnel in the live music industry.

Previously announced speakers include Sumit Bothra (SB3 Artist Management), Alex Hardee (Wasserman Music), Jess Iszatt (BBC) and Katie Melua (artist). Italy was unveiled as the Focus Country for the 2025 showcase.

ESNS takes place between 15–18 January in Groningen, the Netherlands. The full conference programme can be found here and delegate passes can be purchased here.

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