The music programming of the festival was finalised and we launched new website dedicated to focus
Almost 120 artists, journalists, and music professionals from Slovakia will travel as partners of Eurosonic Noorderslag to Gröningen, Netherlands, to attend this biggest European showcase festival. The group is part of the focus of the festival on the music from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. ESNS finalized its line-up, which includes 319 names, a few days ago, with Czech and Slovak Focuses providing 11 artists from the Czech Republic and 10 from Slovakia. They will be given the opportunity to address with their performances 4,000 music professionals and representatives of 400 European festivals attending this cultural event of European significance every year. Our music will be talked about also in various conference panels. In addition to music, we will bring visual installations to the Netherlands from well-known Slovak artists as well as our own stage—Garáž stage—that will feature several Slovak and Czech artists. Today we launched www.czskfocus.com, where you can watch the story of the biggest presentation of our music abroad. For more information, check the facebook event of the focus.
11. December 2018
By the end of August 2018, over 200 bands from our countries had registered on the ESNS 2019 website, with 133 bands from Slovakia. Slovakia will be represented this January in Gröningen by Isama Zing, Autumnist, Katarína Máliková, Tittingur, Nvmeri, B-Complex, Our Stories, The Ills, Thisnis, and Möbius. For the Czech scene, these artists will appear: Hellwana, Thom Artway, Bohemian Cristal Instrument, Zabelov Group, Lazer Viking, Lenny, Circus Brothers, Manon Meurt, Floex + Tom Hodge, Pipes And Pints, and Mydy Rabycad. Pohoda will take care of the Slovak part of the crew, whose main partner is Urpiner. “We are delighted that Urpiner is part of the largest presentation of the Slovak music in the history of our country. We have been one of the main partners of the Pohoda festival for three years and we are helping to bring foreign stars to Slovakia. And next year, we will help to take our stars abroad”, said Branislav Cvik, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Banskobystrický pivovar, about the cooperation. We will head to the Netherlands in 3 buses and a few vans. Thanks to our partner of accommodation, Slovenská sporiteľňa, we have booked four large ships in Gröningen where we will stay together. “Our 9-year partnership with Pohoda goes also beyond the borders of Slovakia. We believe that the support of contemporary domestic music production is part of living in a modern country. We also believe in our talented Slovak musicians, and that is why we have decided to support the historically largest presentation of Slovak music abroad. As a partner for accommodation, we put our fingers crossed for all the bands and we hope that the accommodation in Gröningen will be one of the experiences they will be glad to remember,” said Zuzana Kolčáková, the deputy of Slovenská sporiteľňa. The Slovenské pramene a žriedla company and their brand Budiš support the crew too. “We are glad that a strong brand of Slovak soft drinks will too participate in this important milestone for the Slovak music scene. Not only they will provide beverages, they will also support the realization of the focus in its full strength,” said Katarína Hittrichová, the partnership director of the Pohoda festival.
We will also bring our original, smallest and cutest stage—Garáž—in the town. In addition to their performances at Eurosonic, our artists will be able to give another concert in Garáž, which will be located in front of a local university student housing village. Outside of the ESNS 2019 schedule, there will be performances of some more of our bands such as Gonsofus in Gröningen. They will be playing at the parallel Pinguin Radio Showcase organised by Buzz, Bazzookasʼ frontman. We will also distribute artworks from well-known Slovak artists, familiar to visitors of Pohoda, in the streets of the city. We will exhibit Auditorium 6–Greetings from Gröningen to Bruce Neumann by Ilona Németh and Niemand by Viktor Frešo.
You will not just hear Slovak and Czech music at ESNS 2019: representatives of our scene will talk about it at panels during the conference part of the festival. Our Michal will speak at the panel entitled “Boycott Czechoslovakia (a story of a music scene from communism to capitalism).” The debate will address the role of music in totalitarianism and democracy, and will tell the most striking stories of the Czechoslovakian scene. Michal will also appear at “The Festival Panel: Big, Bold and Beautiful”, where representatives of the biggest festivals from four European countries will talk about what all it means to be a market leader. Besides Michal, there will be Cindy Castillo presenting Mad Cool Festival (ES), Mikolaj Ziolkowski talking about Open'er Festival (PL), and Herman Schueremans describing Rock Werchter (BE). The panel entitled “A hitch-hikerʼs guide to the galaxy of the Czech and Slovak music scene” will feature Táňa Lehocká (Real Something), Alexander Čerevka (LALA Slovak Music Export), David Urban (booker, D Smack U), and Márton Náray (SoundCzech/Nouvelle Prague Conference). The panel will give an insight into the local music industry, its size, opportunities, what to do and what to avoid first-hand, all delivered from promoters, agents, booking agents, and export office representatives. We will be glad if you decide to come support our artists in person. Tickets are still available here: https://esns.nl/festival-tickets
You can listen to the work of selected artists here: