Soundcat: Liveurope and Institut Ramon Llull support emerging Catalan and Balearic Artists

Soundcat is a programme that was created in conjunction by Catalonia's Institut Ramon Llull and Liveurope, which aims to support the circulation of emerging Catalan and Balearic artists across all 16 Liveurope venues. The objective of the partnership is to increase the inclusion of up-and-coming music groups from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands in the Liveurope concert venue network.

Institut Ramon Llull, based in Barcelona, is a public body founded with the purpose of promoting Catalan culture, from nurturing languages and literary studies, to supporting cultural production in areas of music, performing arts, film, design and architecture. The mission of the Institute is to support the dissemination of Catalan art both locally and abroad. Soundcat is the first initiative of its kind aimed at increasing the booking of emerging Catalan and Balearic artists in iconic European venues. 

To kick off the partnership, on Friday, 31 May 31 2019, at Institut Ramon Llull's headquarters in Barcelona a series of speed meetings between Liveurope's programmers and Catalan and Balearic artist managers was held in order to encourage collaboration and establish a network between talent and concert venues in order to increase artists' chances of being booked across all of Europe.

A statement from Institut Ramon Llull:

This year, there is a commitment to boosting greater projection of up-and-coming pop rock/indie music from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands on a stable, prestigious European circuit. In this regard, Institut Ramon Llull is providing financial support for the venues that propose and book artists from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. These Liveurope members venues are A38 (Budapest, Hungary), BLÅ (Oslo, Norway), FZW (Dortmund, Germany), L'Aéronef (Lille, France), Melkweg (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Musicbox (Lisbon, Portugal), Rockhal (Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg), Stodola (Warsaw, Poland), VEGA (Copenhagen, Denmark), Village Underground (London, United Kingdom), Kino Siska (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Ancienne Belgique (Brussels, Belgium) and Palac Akropolis (Prague, Czech Republic).