Review: Swiss Music Export @ Reeperbahn Festival 2013
Six Swiss artists part of the festival program and a Swiss Business Mixer bursting at the seams with enthusiastic guests – Swiss Music Export reflects on a successful trip to Hamburg.
This year’s edition of the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg took place from 25 to 28 September. More than 300 international newcomers representing all kinds of genres – including indie, pop, rock, folk, singer/songwriters, electro, hip hop, soul and jazz – performed live in 70odd venues. 2950 business professionals, including 450 media representatives, attended a wide range of events. About a third of these were from outside Germany. Once again, the total number of professionals attending the conference has risen, this time by 550 – a clear indication of the importance attached to this get-together by the European music community. In addition to the business professionals attending the festival, 25’000 concert tickets were sold to the general public.
The Reeperbahn Festival 2013 was rated a great success by all participants from Switzerland. Pegasus, OY, We Invented Paris, Alvin Zealot, Dagobert and Fiona Daniel all performed as part of the regular concert program. Oy, We Invented Paris, Dagobert and Pegasus also played a showcase during the Swiss Business Mixer on Friday 27 September at the “Herz von Sankt Pauli”-Club by the Spielbudenplatz. An incredible 400 professionals took up SME’s invitation to an afternoon of raclette, Swiss white wine and music.
This is how Jean Zuber (Swiss Music Export) sums up “mission Hamburg”:
“It was encouraging indeed to observe the high level of interest in Swiss music shown by the international music community. This was partly reflected by the extremely good attendance of the Swiss Business Mixer, partly by the success of the concert performances of our artists. The Reeperbahn Festival is now one of the most important events for Swiss music professionals to network and make new connections. Despite the stylistic diversity of the Swiss artists appearing here, we are convinced that all of them, in different ways, will be able to build up successful international careers.”
Urs Schnell from the FONDATION SUISA sends this report:
“Once again this year the idea has proved highly successful to enter into a partnership with the Reeperbahnfestival, Hamburg, to facilitate a highly visible Swiss presence at the event. It allowed Swiss Music Export SME and FONDATION SUISA to set up a “Music made in Switzerland”-day which took place on Friday, 27 September, at the “Herz von St. Pauli”-Club on the Reeperbahn. Starting at 10 am, Swiss music professionals gathered in the “Meet the Swiss” contact lounge to discuss business strategies with their international counterparts in a relaxed ambience over coffee and croissants.
The Swiss day continued in the afternoon with the Swiss Business Mixer, complete with raclette, wine and live music. The many guests temporarily left outside the venue to wait for other guests to leave and make space for them, happily used the opportunity for some extra open-air networking. The very fact that no fewer than six acts from Switzerland formed part of the official concert program is a good indication that Swiss acts are perfectly capable – and more – to compete on an international stage. Which is certainly a good reason to start planning for next year’s return to the Reeperbahnfestival.”
The Swiss presence at the Reeperbahnfestival was noted well beyond the immediate environment of the festival itself and the Swiss music business. The large non-tabloid Swiss Sunday paper “Schweiz am Sonntag” devoted a whole page to the event. Journalist Stefan Künzli highlighted the stylistic diversity of the participating Swiss bands, from the idiosyncratic niche band OY to the mainstream pop of Pegasus. He reports that the latter, having signed with an international booker earlier in the year, have already been booked for more than twenty concerts across Europe in the autumn. The paper also quotes SME’s Jean Zuber: “It has never been a better time for Swiss artists to establish themselves in the German market,” he says. A few years ago, Swiss artists found it hard to be taken seriously in Germany. Now that has changed: “German labels and bookers are happy to take Swiss pop music into consideration. The image of Switzerland has changed. It’s no longer all about DJ Bobo. People are now aware that there is a rich and diverse pop music scene in Switzerland capable of producing innovative music of high quality.”
m.schweizamsonntag.ch/ipad/articleView.htm
http://www.musikmarkt.de/Aktuell/News/Reeperbahn-Festival-2013-Schweizer-Pop-rockt-Hamburg
