Groningen, Netherlands (CelebrityAccess) — Organizers for the Dutch music festival and industry conference Eurosonic Noorderslag announced that the 2021 virtual edition of the event was a success that “exceeded our wildest expectations.”
The event, which went digital this year due to COVID-19, took place across four nights from January 13-16. Over the course of the four-day event, ESNS hosted exclusive live sets from 189 acts from 36 European countries that were live streamed via four different channels and which were covered extensively by ESNS media partner NPO 3FM and European radio stations, united in the EBU (European Broadcasting Union).
Dutch broadcaster NTR also broadcast a 2-hour program on Saturday night on NPO 3 with the Noorderslag festival with all Dutch showcases.
If you missed any of the showcases, they are all still available at: 3fm.nl/esns.
For the conference side of ESNS, almost 4,000 delegates took part in the event, which was themed ‘The Road to Recovery’ which looked at rebuilding the live scene for both The Netherlands and the wider EU industry.
The conference featured a total of 66 panels and 274 speakers. The most popular panels at this year’s ESNS included ‘Successful Covid Festival Formats’, ‘Streaming is here to stay!’ and ‘Platform Workshops with Bandcamp & Spotify’, and also keynote interviews with Wendy Ong (manager Dua Lipa), Scott Cohen (Warner Music), and Neil Warnock (UTA).
Digital networking was on offer as well, with more than 10,000 virtual meetings scheduled during the 4-day conference, ESNS said.
“We are truly overwhelmed by the positive feedback, with many saying a new standard has been set, which is amazing and the digital edition has exceeded our wildest expectations,” Robert Meijerink, head of programme of ESNS said.
“The ESNS platform is focused on new emerging acts from Europe and to bring together music professionals from all corners of the world to discuss the current and future of the music sector and its industry. Thanks to NPO 3FM and members of EBU, ESNS was able to reach an even bigger audience in Europe and beyond. We really hope we can organize a physical edition in 2022 and be together once again, but we will also expand our online ventures next year,” he added.
