European Festival Awards 2019: All the winners
Glastonbury Festival, Open’er, Electric Castle, No Sleep Festival and WME’s Lucy Dickins were among those to pick up prizes at the 2019 European Festival Awards, held this evening at Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Hosted by IQ’s Gordon Masson and A Greener Festival’s Claire O’Neill, the award ceremony saw festivals recognised across 15 categories, including best major, medium and small festivals and line-up of the year, as well as awards for green efforts, health and safety innovation and brand activations.
Open’er Festival, organised by independent Polish promoter Alter Art, was the evening’s biggest winner, taking home the prizes for best major festival and best brand activation for its collaboration with Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Representatives from Romania enjoyed a successful evening, with Romanian festivals Electric Castle and Jazz in the Park taking the best medium-sized festival and best small festival gongs respectively, and Codruta Vulcu, the founder of 2018’s best small festival, ARTmania, winning the award for excellence and passion.
Open’er Festival, organised by independent Polish promoter Alter Art, was the evening’s biggest winner
German events also put in a good showing, with Hamburg’s Reeperbahn Festival winning best indoor event and Das Fest, which takes place in the German city of Karlsruhe, receiving the Take a Stand award for its commitment to social activism.
Other major prizes went to the UK’s Glastonbury Festival, last year headlined by Stormzy, the Killers and the Cure, for line-up of the year, No Sleep Festival in Serbia for best new festival and to WME’s Lucy Dickins for agent of the year.
As previously announced, Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen, the co-founders of Wacken Open Air – the winner of best major festival at the 2018 awards – received the lifetime achievement gong at this year’s ceremony.
A full list of European Festival Awards 2019 winners can be found below:
Best major festival
Open’er Festival (Poland)
Best medium-sized festival
Electric Castle (Romania)
Best small festival
Jazz in the Park (Romania)
Best indoor festival
Reeperbahn Festival (Germany)
Best new festival
No Sleep Festival (Serbia)
Line-up of the year
Glastonbury (United Kingdom)
Newcomer of the year
Billie Eilish (US)
The lifetime achievement award
Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen (Wacken Open Air)
The green operations award
OpenAir St Gallen (Switzerland)
The health and safety innovation award
Balaton Sound (Hungary)
The brand activation award
Open’er Festival (Poland) & Netflix’s Stranger Things
The Take a Stand award
Das Fest (Germany)
The award for excellence and passion
Codruta Vulcu
Promoter of the year
Wepromote (Switzerland)
Agent of the year
Lucy Dickins (WME)
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Going Dutch: What to expect from ESNS 2020
Much of the European music industry is preparing for its yearly pilgrimage to the Netherlands, as conference and showcase festival Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) is set to commence tomorrow, 15 January, in the Dutch city of Groningen.
Combining a daytime conference programme with a packed evening showcase schedule, ESNS 2020 welcomes Switzerland as its focus nation this year, with over 20 emerging Swiss acts performing throughout the event and aiming to impress in the European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP), which saw success for ATC Live-repped punk rockers Fontaines DC last year.
The 2019 European Festival Awards kick off proceedings on Wednesday evening, hosted by IQ Magazine’s Gordon Masson and A Greener Festival’s Claire O’Neill, and featuring performances from artists including Swiss singer-songwriter Marius Bear.
Wacken Open Air founders Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen are set to receive the lifetime achievement accolade at the ceremony, which will see winners crowned across 15 categories.
Over 150 panels, along with keynote interviews, workshops and networking opportunities, will take place at ESNS 2020
Over 150 panels, along with keynote interviews and workshops, will take place at ESNS 2020 from 16 to 19 January at conference centre De Oosterpoort, with a new city-centre location, Forum Groningen, hosting sessions over the weekend.
Highlights of the conference programme include ‘the Dickins Dynasty’, which sees ITB co-founder Barry Dickins and his daughter Lucy, head of WME’s UK music division, and son Jonathan, founder and CEO of September Management, in conversation with ILMC MD Greg Parmley, as well as a keynote interview with Isle of Wight Festival and Solo Agency’s John Giddings.
Other notable sessions include a keynote from Ticketmaster’s Don Pawley, ‘the Agents Panel’ with Paradigm’s Paul Buck, ATC Live’s Alex Bruford, X-ray Touring’s Beckie Sugden and CAA’s Maria May, and a panel on boutique festivals featuring representatives from Openair St.Gallen, Bluedot/Kendal Calling, Westway Lab and Release Athens.
ESNS 2019 attracted over 42,000 guests from 44 countries, including 4,100 conference delegates and representatives from 423 festivals, and showcased 342 acts across more than 40 stages.
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W:O:A founders to receive EFA lifetime achievement gong
Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen, co-founders of German metal festival Wacken Open Air, will receive the lifetime achievement award at the 11th European Festival Awards (EFAs) on 15 January 2020.
The other nominees for the awards, which take place during Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, Netherlands, were revealed last week, with over 350,000 votes cast across the 14 other categories.
Jensen, the bassist in a band called Skyline, and Hübner, who was working as a DJ, co-founded Wacken Open Air in 1990.
Nearly 30 years on, the festival is arguably the world’s most important metal/hard rock event – Wacken 2020 sold all 75,000 tickets in the space of a few hours – and their company, ICS, also includes a roster of other hard rock festivals, a touring division, a booking agency (Seaside Touring), ticketing platform Metaltix and the Wacken Foundation, a nonprofit which provides tour support and other assistance to young bands.
Last year’s EFA lifetime achievement award was collected by Eurosonic founder Peter Smidt, with Wacken picking up best major festival and Roskilde Festival being awarded line-up of the year.
Read IQ’s special 30th-anniversary feature on Wacken Open Air here.
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European Festival Awards unveils 2019 shortlist
The nominees for the 11th edition of the European Festival Awards have been revealed, with the ceremony due to take place on 15 January at Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) in the Netherlands.
Over 350,000 votes have been cast for the 2019 awards across the main public categories, which include best major, medium and small festivals, as well as the best new and best indoor events.
The awards will present accolades across 15 categories in total, with the shortlists available for all but one category – the lifetime achievement award – which last year went to ESNS co-founder Peter Smidt.
The nominees for the 11th edition of the European Festival Awards have been revealed
The shortlists can be viewed here across categories including the year’s best line-up, promoter, agent, new artist and brand activation, as well as awards for social activism, excellence and passion, and green operations.
Last year’s awards saw Wacken Open Air and Roskilde Festival pick up the biggest prizes of the night – best major festival and best line-up respectively. The Netherlands’ Mojo (Pinkpop, North Sea Jazz, Down the Rabbit Hole, Lowlands) won best promoter, with CAA’s Mike Greek earning the agent of the year award.
Tickets for the 2019 awards ceremony at De Oosterpoort, Groningen, are available here, with tribune tickets priced at €30. Premium tickets, which include access to the cocktail hour, a three-course dinner, a seat at the awards show and access to the after party, cost €100.
See all the winners from last year’s European Festival Awards here.
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