European Talent Exchange reveals most-booked acts

Eurosonic Noorderslag’s (ESNS) European Talent Exchange has revealed the scheme’s most-booked artists of 2024, led by an all-UK & Ireland top five.

Previously known as ESNS Exchange, the music exchange programme facilitates the booking of European acts at festivals outside their home countries in collaboration with Yourope and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

This year’s most prolific performers were the UK’s Fat Dog with 15 bookings, followed by English Teacher (UK) on nine and Lambrini Girls (UK) and Yard (Ireland) with eight.

Chalk (IE), Kingfishr (Ireland) and YĪN YĪN (Netherlands) were next on the list with seven bookings each, ahead of Loverman (Belgium), Nusantara Beat (Netherlands), Picture Parlour (UK) and Yunè Pinku (Ireland) on six.

“We’re now on the same stages as bands we were fans of ourselves”

“We’re now on the same stages as bands we were fans of ourselves,” say Chalk.

In 2024 overall, the programme resulted in 335 shows by 132 acts from 33 countries, performing at 95 festivals across 34 countries.

The top five festivals with the most booked Exchange artists were Germany’s Reeperbahn with 28 bookings, the UK’s The Great Escape (UK) on 23, Haldern Pop Festival in Germany with 14, Hungary’s Sziget on 11 and Slovenia’s MENT Ljubljana on 10.

The initiative was established in 2003 in a bid to overcome the challenges faced by the European pop music industry in international promotion and distribution. Since then, it has helped 2,292 European artists from 36 countries perform 5,675 shows at 197 partner festivals across 44 countries.

ESNS25 will take place in Groningen, the Netherlands, from 15-18 January 2025.

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