Tallinn was a bliss. Our team had the chance to attend Tallinn Music Week, member of UPBEAT where more than 1000 professionals from the culture and music sectors convened. Conference, music and our frutiful UPBEAT reception! The conference session kicked off with the question on everyone’s mind: “How to further develop a sustainable European music ecosystem in transition?” projecting solutions for the European music ecosystem.
We met members of the Federation of Music Conferences, heard Ed O’Brien of Radiohead and EOB passionately vouch for civic engagement and sustainability in the music sector. Climate change loomed large through the voices of inuit artists, at panels on sustainability in festival management; and overlapped with discussions of gender and inclusion in music, topics Keychange finds key. Our board lead Balázs Weyer joined a discussion around the local and global aspects of the music industry, popping the million Euro question: do we need the label world music? The impact of AI came up again and again across panels.
Then there was the music; everything from pop, jazz, through folktronica and amazing world music filling the stages of TMW. We loved Mari Kalkun on the kannel (Estonian zither) and electronic keyboards, the amazing Duo Ruut, Tuulikki Bartosik or the crazy Cypriots Monsieur Doumani filling the dancefloor with their trademark psych-folk.
The cherry on the cake, the UPBEAT reception on Sunday went down in a festive mood with over a hundred people attending. After opening speeches by Helen Sildna and Balázs Weyer we introduced UPBEAT and our delegate database, the UPBEAT Universe – a brand new tool for assisting music professionals in Europe. Thanks to Helen and the TMW Team for giving us such a warm welcome and suitable platform and the inspiring four days in Tallinn!