This Thursday and Friday, from 8th to 9th December Tartu Music Week (Tartu muusikanädal) will take place in Estonia’s university town Tartu for the fifth year. The two-day sister event of the internationally recognised music and urban culture festival Tallinn Music Week treats the city with public pop-up events in the sharpest start-up companies along with the official after-party of the business festival sTARTUp Day in the former exhibition venue of Estonian National Museum.

Estonia has gained a reputation as a haven for all things tech, and Tartu, the university town labelled ‘the city of good thoughts’ with its burgeoning start-up scene has lately become the Silicon Valley of e-Estonia. Tartu Music Week will help to discover the new smart and fast Tartu in two days filled with music and public talks.

On Thursday 8th December some of the sharpest tech offices in the city will host a series of public pop-up concerts and music-meets-tech talks along with the joint press event and pre-party of Tartu Music Week and sTARTUp Day business festival.

The day starts at 9.00 with Open Coffee Club meeting at the premises of world-famous web tool Voog (previously Edicy), accompanied by fresh coffee, Baltic sprat sandwiches and vapour-wave vibes by Florian Wahl. At 11.00 Music Estonia welcomes everyone to brunch in Café Krempel and to music-meets-tech public talks. Nick Triani, the founder of Finnish indie label Soliti, Stefan Juhlin, the co-founder and managing director of Pitch & Smith and Estonian folk innovator Maarja Nuut will share their expertise and experiences on the music manager’s stock in trade. Artist manager, lecturer and “the best dressed man in the music industry” Andy Inglis will share a snippet of life on the road, demonstrating how to organize a tour and bring a band back home healthy – both physically and mentally. Writer and lecturer Berk Vaher will phantasize about the role of artificial intelligence in the creative process and the future scenarios of post-humanist culture along with materials science researcher Martin Järvekülg, neuroscientist Hendrik Luuk and electronic musicians Martin Voltri and Florian Wahl.
From 15.00 the joint press event and pre-party of Tartu Music Week and sTARTUp Day business festival will take place in the business and community centre SPARK. The press lunch, hosted by stand-up comedian Louis Zezeran will feature the live performance of Finnish singer-songwriter Suad and welcome addresses by founder of Contriber and sTARTUp Hub, Rein Lemberpuu, head of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Tartu, Andres Kuusik and founder of Tallinn Music Week Helen Sildna.

At 17.00 all the tech & music heads are welcome to the office of software and product development company Mooncascade to the public interview and live set of the successful Estonian electropop act Andres Kõpper aka NOËP.  At 19:00 the mobile app developers Mobi Lab will hold a Design Friday public talk, followed by the bratty rhymes of the Hanf Kung rap crew.
Friday 9th December introduces the first edition of international business festival sTARTUp Day. Held in the newly opened Estonian National Museum, sTARTUp Day is a conference where old fish and newbies, traditional entrepreneurs and start uppers, government and media will loudly and proudly discuss the different business models. The topic of the conference is intriguing – how to earn if there is nothing to burn?

The evening of 9th December brings the music and tech lovers to the former exhibition house of Estonian National Museum near the railway station in Kuperjanovi Street. Tartu Music Week’s club night and the official after-party of sTARTUp Day will feature an array of Estonian and regional talent. Next to the up ’n’ coming Finnish-Chadian singer-songwriter Suad and the ambassador of spiritual bass techno from Russia, Moa Pillar, several Estonian acts will take to stage – the noir-rap master reket, the bratty rap crew Hanf Kung, rawk ‘n’ rowl combo Dead Furies, the sensual & surreal ghost pop act Florian Wahl and the bass meets future club dj/producer Paul Oja.

Tartu Music Week 2016 schedule

Thursday, 8th December – free pop up talks and concerts

9:00 Voog OpenCoffee Club (Raekoja 1) + Florian Wahl LIVE
11:00-14:00 Music Estonia brunch (Rüütli 12)
11:00 Music manager, who are you? Moderator: Henrik Ehte
Speakers: Nick Triani, Stefan Juhlin, Maarja Nuut
12:00 Presentation: tour management. Andy Inglis
13:00 Posthumanist culture, Moderator: Berk Vaher
Speakers: Hendrik Luuk, Martin Järvekülg, Martin Voltri, Florian Wahl
15:00-16:00 sTARTUp Day and Tartu Music Week press event at SPARK (Narva mnt 3)
Live: Suad (FI)
17:00 Mooncascade Music Talk (Narva mnt 9) Priit Salumaa vs Andres Kõpper
NOËP Live
19:00 Mobi Lab Design Friday (Akadeemia 3)
Hanf Kung Live

Friday 9th December – Tartu Music Week club night and sTARTUp Day afterparty
(J. Kuperjanovi 9)

20:00 Doors / DJ Kersten Kõrge & DJ Robert Kähr
20:30-21:00 Dead Furies
21:15-21:45 Moa Pillar (RU)
22:00-22:30 Florian Wahl
22:45-23:30 Suad (FI)
23:45-00:30 Hanf Kung
00:45-01:30 Paul Oja
01:45-02:30 reket

Tartu Music Week club night tickets are available in Estonian Piletilevi. Pre-booked tickets cost 8 Euros, at venue 10 Euros / 8 Euros to the sTARTUp DAY guests. Telia clients get 20 per cent off standard pre-booked tickets price.

Tartu Music Week is organized by Musiccase OÜ and powered by Tartu City, sTARTUp Day, Telia and Spotify, Hektor Design Hostels, MOE, Fritz-Kola and Club-Mate, Kokomo Coffee Roasters, HeyDay Organic.

The official media partner of Tartu Music Week is Eesti Meedia.