Groningen and music

Groningen has a lively music scene, which is mainly based on the annual festival Eurosonic Noorderslag. During this music festival, undiscovered artists get the chance to perform and to get picked-up by the radio and by record labels. It takes place in more than 30 venues all over the city and in 2015, it was sold out which meant there were 41.200 visitors with 42 nationalities. Not only the performances are important, there is also a conference for European music professional’s. Moreover, several awards are presented to the most important upcoming musicians in both the Netherlands and the European Union.[1]

Dr. Luis-Manuel Garcia, whose field of study is ethnomusicology, has written about varying music scenes in cities all over the world. During his guest lecture, he explained how music scenes are connected to certain places and how these are in their turn connected to certain emotions or sensations. He has researched this in, for example, Berlin, where he dove into the techno-industry. Some of his conclusions were that Berlin was often picked as techno-city because of its active nightlife and image of tolerance and freedom. Also, techno-tourists are often trying to avoid mass-tourism, and therefore pick Berlin as urban and underground tourism spot.[2]

I would say that Eurosonic Noorderslag, with its goal to find new and upcoming artists, is also trying not to be ‘mainstream’ and is internationally oriented. I believe it is interesting that this festival takes place in Groningen and not in more obvious places like Amsterdam or Rotterdam. This might also directly provide us with an answer: because Groningen is ‘unobvious’ it might be the best place to discover musicians. Also, in a small city like Groningen, it is easy for the venues to all co-operate together. Concerthalls like Oosterpoort and Vera, but also a music store like Plato, all are turned into stages during this festival.

Source: www.popunie.nl

- Tessa

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[1] "Over Eurosonic Noorderslag," Eurosonic Noorderslag, accessed February 1, 2016, http://www.eurosonic-noorderslag.nl/nl/info/over-ons/

[2] Luis Manuel-Garcia, "Techno-tourism and post-industrial neo-romanticism in Berlin’s electronic dance music scenes," Tourist Studies (2015): 1-20, accessed February 1, 2016, http://tou.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/12/05/1468797615618037.abstract