Budapest Showcase Hub 3rd Edition is about to begin. One of the focal points is the German market. We asked Reeperbahn’s Björn Pfarr about the possibilities.
Budapest Showcase Hub – Third Edition is about to begin this week from 15.11 to 17.11. The Hungarian showcase festival focuses mainly on the Central and Eastern European region, but one of the key themes of this year will be the German market. So we asked the Head of music programme and alternate director of Hamburg-based Reeperbahn Festival, Björn Pfarr about the possibilities and many other things.
What are the main aspects of selecting Reeperbahn’s line-up? I mean what’s the awareness to bring new voices from all around Europe like from Central Europe?
Planning, booking, and programming a club festival like Reeperbahn with such a massive number of acts is very complex. For the club festival, first of all, we evaluate the occupancy rate of the clubs from last year’s edition. With those results, we define an initial number of clubs we need for next year’s edition. This results in a more or less precise number of slots we need to book/schedule. These decisions are made on a day-by-day basis as we learn more about the capacity. Starting from here, right after the festival we begin to negotiate with agents, promoters, managers as well as partners (for the showcases). In the curated strand we first of all look mainly for bigger names (we run many bigger venues where we cannot schedule newcomer acts) and try to keep a foot in the door on the really hot-tipped ones and personal favourites. Furthermore, we try to nail down cooperations with our broadcasting partners (with whom we do some recorded nights) as well as start booking acts for special venues like the new Philharmonic Hall.
How does your line-up selection process look like? How do you choose which bands can participate at Reeperbahn?
It’s important to point out that there are two ways acts find their way into our line-up: on the one hand, there is the curated part of the booking. Nearly all of the bigger acts come via this strand. In 2017 slightly more acts dropped into the line-up via the curated booking process. On the other hand, we had 47 showcases (nights) that we dealt with various partners like export offices, labels, regions or booking agencies. Booking and programming Reeperbahn Festival is a big, big puzzle. The next step is to attend as many showcase festivals as possible, in the end and in the beginning of the year to see as many live acts as possible and to meet people like agents, label reps, managers and all the German promoters (for the curated part we do nearly all bookings via the German promoter – if there is someone in charge already). Plus, we do listen to hundreds of new acts we’re getting on the table from all over the world (Reeperbahn festival does book all kinds of music and acts from everywhere), checking out blogs, specialist magazines and talking to our wider – and from year to year bigger – network of people we trust. So it’s always a mixture between our own ideas and acts we did not know before until someone approached and convinced us.
If you are talking about a foreign presence, how can you decide which performer will fit the Festival? Does ‘trending’ or ‘thematizing’ matter?
Also very complex as we’re not a classical showcase festival. We have different kinds of venues. Many venues fit a specific kind of music. Nowadays it has a lot to do with experience. But of course, we look at trends. We need big names, we need hot new acts and always we need acts with high quality. And sure also our personal taste matters.
Germany is one of Europe biggest music market. I’m wondering what’s the possibility of a band from Central Europe in Germany? Is there any possibility at all?
Yes, there are chances to find a way into the line-up. But it’s tricky as we need to sell tickets and that’s why we have to keep a close look on what’s hot and what’s selling tickets in our own market. We do keep an eye on what’s happening at the important blogs, magazines and at other festivals. Sadly so far there are only very fewer acts from Central or Eastern Europe to find. Also worldwide knows and respected labels like Domino, Ninja Tune, Bella Union or XL do not or more or less do not release acts from this region. I think this a very complex issue and it’s very hard to break this circle.
What should have a Hungarian band done to being noticed in Germany? I know there’s no exact recipe but what are the main things and details you must attend?
Getting noticed for music lovers (consumers), label reps or festival bookers is of a different kind and all these people look to other figures and things. First of all, I think that it’s hard to get noticed in Germany when you sound different to music that is successful in this market. Which does NOT mean that I would suggest changing one’s music or sound. But IF you want to break into the market it’s definitely hard to do this with an „Eastern European” sound. This is sad but I think it’s fact. Being highlighted in blogs or getting picked from important labels or playing good venues in other important markets is really helpful. Having radio airplay and doing record releases with important labels is also really helpful. And you need to be really really outstanding and professional. To be honest it’s a long and hard way of getting noticed in Germany for a Hungarian or Eastern European band I think.
If you wanna check out the programmes, you can browse HERE ➡️
Schedule – Artists
You can also check the BuSH’s compilation playlist of performers here – via Spotify ➡️
BUSH 2018
A compilation of BUSH Festival 2018 lineup. www.budapestshowcasehub.com
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