The remarkable collaboration between the University of Groningen and music festival ESNS

Every year in mid-January, Groningen is dominated by ESNS (Eurosonic/Noorderslag). The city then becomes the stage for Europe's largest showcase festival. For several years now, the University of Groningen has been collaborating with the festival on various themes. In this article, we highlight two initiatives.

ESNS Talks

On Thursday 16 January, the first edition of ESNS Talks will be organized in the House of Connections. ESNS Talks is the place where the international music industry meets research. In two free-to-access sessions, you will discover more about this interesting connection.

5 p.m. - 6 p.m. | Crafting Musical Identities & Social Media Strategies

With Groningen’s very own Blanks and music photographer Ben Houdijk, we will discuss crafting artist identities and generating audience engagement through photography and innovative online artmaking and social media content production. This will be a valuable discussion for developing artists, influencers, and anyone interested in performance, image, social media and identity.

6 p.m. - 7 p.m. | Diversity and Inclusivity on European Festival Stages

With Sziget (Hungary) festival booker Márk Bóna and LGBTQIA+ musician and activist SexyTadhg, we’ll discuss perspectives on how to cultivate diversity on festival stages and the differing needs of distinct regions in Europe. We’ll focus specifically on the impact of queer performance and the programming of diverse lineups in Hungary, Romania, and in the metal scene, but will also present new insights related to gender and racial equity on European stages.

ESNS Talks is a collaboration between ESNS and the University of Groningen (House of Connections, Master's programme Popular Music & Sonic Cultures, and ICOG - The Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture).

Podcast: RUG & ESNS

A new episode of the podcast RUG & Co. will go live on Wednesday, January 15. In this podcast, science journalist Jelle Posthuma and programmer Floor Kuiper explore interesting and unusual collaborations between the University of Groningen and the outside world. This third episode focuses on the collaboration with ESNS and features Chris Tonelli (University of Groningen) and Ilona Deuring (ESNS). They share the story behind the start of the collaboration between the music festival and the master’s programme Popular Music and Sonic Cultures. What does ESNS gain from this collaboration, and why is it also important for the university to collaborate with Europe’s largest showcase festival? You can hear this and more in this new episode!

Tune in to the latest episode of RUG & Co. from Wednesday, January 15, via the following link or via your favourite podcast app.