Liveurope's 2019 in highlights

With the end of the concert season almost at an end, we're reflecting on some of our most successful moments of 2019.

"Crack the Code: New Stories for Europe"

On May 7th, ahead of the European elections, Ancienne Belgique hosted its fifth edition of Europe Day. The event, which was titled "Crack the Code: New Stories for Europe", brought together artists, decision-makers and cultural experts to explore the story of Europe through the lens of music and creative arts. The evening concert featured Hudna (DK) and Elektro Hafiz (DE), and Kornelia Binicewicz (PL), artists of the Turkish Psychedelic scene, a genre that defies borders, languages and musical genres. Watch the video and listen to The Europeans to learn more about this year's edition of Europe Day and about Liveurope's endeavours to revive the European dream through live music.

Europe Days at Liveurope venues

Palac Akropolis' Liveurope Festival was the fourth edition of a full night dedicated exclusively to emerging international acts. Artists like Mortiz Simon Geist, Kaelan Mikla, Cari Cari, Bohemian Cristal Instrument, Lazer Viking and Lysistrata were the highlights of the evening. 

For the second year in a row, Warsaw's Stodoła booked two nights for a full Liveurope stage at the Juwenalia Festival featuring nearly two dozen international emerging artists representing 12 different nationalities from every corner of Europe, making this stage arguably the most international stage in all of Europe during the entire festival weekend. 

For the Europe Day theme of 2019, For the Europe Day theme of 2019, L'Aéronef's "All for Two" was dedicated to showcasing 6 duos, each representing an individual nationality. FZW's "Etepetete", festival, held on May 10th, once again featured an ensemble of Dortmund's selection of 7 bands from each corner of Europe. FZW concluded the month of May with a feature of their Indie Nights series.

Soundcat supports upcoming Catalan and Balearic acts

Together with Institut Ramon Llull, we launched Soundcat, the first-ever collaboration that supports upcoming Catalan and Balearic artists in Liveurope venues. Barcelona's Tversky was the first act featured as part of this programme at At L'Aeronef's "Europe Day: All for Two" concert. Get to know them better by watching the interview above.

Collaboration of venues, aspiring member and SXSW

For the first time since our establishment, our trio of Kino Šiška, A38 and Palác Akropolis arranged a hat-trick tour leg with Echo Collective, a Brussels-based post-modern classical ensemble, a collective of musicians that were particularly highlighted by Ancienne Belgique.

Liveurope's first-ever call for aspiring members brought dozens of applications from concert venues keen to join the Liveurope platform. This was the first time since the launch that Liveurope held an open call for applications. Announced during activities at the Eurosonic Noorderslag festival, the application called for a venue that would diversify the geographic representativity of the platform. After thorough consideration, Milan's Santeria Toscana 31 was welcomed into the platform as the first-ever aspiring member and introduced at Lisbon's MIL conference, where our activities also included sold-out" speed meeting sessions and panels that eased the audience into the developments of music policy in Europe as well as the important role that music venues play in the early stages of artists' international careers.

At SXSW Conference & Festival, as part of the delegation of EU in the US, we took part in the discussion about the value of live music and the public sector's support across the entire spectrum of the live music scenes, from festivals to independent venues and clubs. Watch the footage of the full panel via this link.

Music Moves Europe 

From 20th to 21st of May, Ancienne Belgique was the chosen location to host over 100 representatives of the music sector and the European Commission's at the first-ever Music Moves Europe structured dialogue. Music Moves Europe is the European Commission's initiative which aims to directly establish the music sector as a pillar of Europe's creative industry landscape. The motivation behind Music Moves Europe lies in the recognition of the cultural influence of music and has the direct ambition to boost the diversity and opportunities for talent. Discussions included support of live concert venues and professional development, digitisation and implementation of the copyright directive.

EU Commissioner Tibor Navracsics concluded the two days by reaffirming the importance of continuing this crucial dialogue between policy-makers and the music sector. 

Music: "Blue 9:8" by Hudna, as featured on the 'Saz Power' compilation by Ironhand Records. Used with artists' permission.