The artist application round for the ninth edition of the new music and city culture festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW) ended on 1 November with 1470 applicants from 59 countries, about one-fifth of those from Estonia. Next up were Finland, Russia and Latvia. Some of the most exotic places to apply from included Mali, Tunisia, Cabo Verde, Taiwan, Indonesia and Greenland. 

Around 200 applicants will be confirmed into the festival line-up by a broad team of Estonian music experts – representatives from different venues, festivals and labels, as well as radio presenters, managers, producers, promoters and PR experts. The three-day showcase programme will be announced at the beginning of February.

TMW 2017 TOP 10 applicants per country:

Estonia 264
Finland 224
Russia 143
Latvia 95
Belarus 86
Denmark 71
Poland 59
United Kingdom 48
Israel 46
Canada 41

According to the head of the festival’s music programme, Raimond Põldmaa the increase of interest from international acts proves that TMW is becoming an integral part of the global music industry.

„Besides Estonians, international acts also have something to gain by performing here. The application statistics clearly indicate that the countries we get most applications from, are the ones that we have made important connections with during the recent years, such as Canada and Russia. New doors open for us every year as the interest towards Tallinn Music Week and the music from our region is constantly growing. This is also very good news for our audience – it can expect an exciting international music event at the end of next March.“

Held each spring in Tallinn, Estonia, TMW is a weeklong celebration of talent, curiosity, creativity, freedom and equality. Already in its 9th year, TMW’s core is the multi-genre new music festival with the line-up spanning from outside artists to chart-pop acts and from folk innovators to classical musicians.

The festival’s role as a significant platform for both emerging and established musicians around the world has grown steadily. TMW 2016 confirmed 250 acts from 30 countries to perform at the festival, among them Russian beat master Pixelord, Mancunian post-punk troupers The Membranes, and Danish-Finnish indie-supergroup Liima. Besides showcases presented by local promoters TMW has featured festival stages by Finland’s biggest metal festival Tuska and city culture festival Flow, as well as a joint night by UK’s FatCat Records imprint 130701 and Estonian Üle Heli festival.

Among the acts who have successfully tested their international breakthrough potential at TMW and moved on to bigger stages are Danish dark rockers Get Your Gun, Belorussian cold-wave group Super Besse, Russian postpunk flag-bearer Motorama, and Estonian very own folk innovators Maarja Nuut and Trad.Attack!.
The ninth edition of TMW takes place in Tallinn from 27th March to 2nd April 2016.

For the second time TMW will fill the entire week. In addition to the music festival line-up and two-day industry conference, TMW offers a series of free City Stage concerts, a selection of eateries within TMW Tastes, TMW Arts programme curated by the Estonian Contemporary Arts Development Centre, Design Market showcasing the most exciting Baltic and Scandinavian brands and designs, TMW Talks series with topics from music to science and societal issues, and City Space activities in cooperation with the interior designers of Estonian Academy of Arts.

TMW 2017 dates:

27th March – 2nd April: TMW Tastes, TMW Talks, TMW City Space
28th March – 2nd April: TMW Arts
30th March – 1st April: music festival (the evening showcase programme)
29th March – 1st April: City Stage (the daytime live programme)
31st March – 1st April: TMW conference
1st – 2nd April: Design Market

Tallinn Music Week 2016 in numbers:

250 artists from 30 countries
34 676 festival visitors
1036 delegates
624 international delegates
132 international journalists
70 festival venues
113 755 unique visits to the website from 144 countries