As the source event for the European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP), The Eurosonic Festival has become a sought after ‘Gateway’ into the full range of the European territories, much in the same way that an appearance at SXSW in Austin, Texas can open doors to exposure in the US. The first list of acts booked for the event, which takes place in Groningen, Holland as part of the Noorderslag weekend on January 13-15, has been released.

This year’s Eurosonic resulted in 35 artists from 13 countries being booked for a total of 84 shows, a significant rise on 2003, the first year of the ETEP scheme, when 23 artists from eight different countries picked up 53 festival bookings between them. Eurosonic is booked by Igor Mönnink and Sjikke Meyer of Buro Gogo.

Among the first 30 acts, with another 120 to be confirmed are: Amplifier (uk), Avril (f), Beatsteaks (d), Blues Brother Castro (nl), Daan (b), Electro Coco (nl), El Tattoo del Tigre (b), Face Tomorrow (nl), Gäte (n), Giant Robot (fin), The Go! Team (uk), Hal (irl), Hot Zex (rus), Iain Archer (irl), Kaiser Chiefs (uk), Le Peuple de L’Herbe (f), Liricas Analas (ch), Malkovich (nl), DJ Melon (nl), Moneybrother (s), Overhead (f), P18 (f), Seymour Bits (nl), Strip Music (s), Triggerfinger (b), The Vaults (uk) and We Insist (f).

I spoke with Igor a couple of days ago, and was happy to discover that Soul Tattoo, who I was impressed by at Music & Media in Tampere, Finland, had been added to the list, as had two Irish acts, The Revs and Mickey Harte.

Vip will again be presenting a panel dealing with current aspects of the live industry at Noorderslag, we will bring you more details of this, plus an update on Eurosonic in the next issue.

More information: www.noorderslag.nl .