Brighton played host to the 20th anniversary of The Great Escape earlier this month, and for the first time, Aotearoa New Zealand was there as Lead Country Partner. The New Zealand Music Commission and Live Nation New Zealand joined forces to bring a full delegation of artists and industry figures to Europe’s foremost new music festival — and the week appears to have exceeded expectations on both fronts.
The centrepiece of the New Zealand programme was an official showcase on Thursday 14 May, filling two stages at Patterns with some of the country’s leading talent. LEAO, Vera Ellen, Muroki, Luca George, Who Shot Scott, Hemi Hemingway, Ringlets, and Jude Kelly all performed, with Len Blake, Office Dog, and ratbag completing the delegation across the wider festival. Many of the acts then performed again throughout the weekend, putting New Zealand music in front of thousands of industry figures, tastemakers, and festival programmers from across the globe.
Earlier that same day, the Music Commission and Live Nation New Zealand co-presented a conference panel at the Leonardo Royal’s Noblesse Room. Titled “Far Out: Building a Global Music Career from the End of the Earth,” the session brought together musicians and industry leaders — current and ex-pat — to talk honestly about what it takes to build an international career when geography forces you to think differently from the start. It is the kind of conversation that tends to resonate at an event like The Great Escape, where the entire premise is about what comes next for emerging artists.
The following day, the delegation hosted a networking event at On The Rocks at the TGE Beach Site — an informal gathering of artists, labels, agents, managers, festival programmers, and media designed to let the relationships formed during the week breathe a little.
The response, by all accounts, was strong. Alan Holt, International Manager for the Music Commission, put it plainly:
“People were impressed. The artists all played exceptionally and were well received throughout the week. There were many, many comments about the high quality of artists from New Zealand this year. There are going to be some fantastic results for our artists from The Great Escape.”
Live Nation MD Mark Kneebone echoed that sentiment. “New Zealand’s appointment as Lead Country Partner at The Great Escape was a genuine milestone for our music industry. To bring these artists to Brighton and have them performing alongside some of the most exciting new artists in the world is a powerful statement about the quality and ambition of what Aotearoa is producing.”
New Zealand’s participation was supported by the New Zealand Government’s Cultural Diplomacy International Programme, administered by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, with additional support from The British Council.
The Great Escape has spent two decades being the place where the global music industry discovers what is coming next. This year, a significant part of that answer came from the bottom of the world.
0 Comments