Festival Awards Europe Announce Longlists And Public Voting Begins

Voting in the Festival Awards Europe has opened, with the longlists unveiled and fans flocking to support their favourite events and artists. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) October 28, 2011 - The third edition of the awards looks set to be bigger and better with a 15% increase in the number of festivals taking part and entries from 32 different countries. This is further strong growth considering it is only Year 3 and reinforces the ever-growing strength and diversity of the pan-European music festival marketplace.

See Video Highlights from 2012 here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpzB-eFQa9Q

James Drury, MD of Festival Awards Ltd, which organises the Awards said: "The response from festivals has been phenomenal. The Awards are all about recognising the hard work which goes into producing Europe's diverse and vibrant festival industry and having chance to celebrate the achievements of the past 12 months. Not only do they give the fans chance to tell festival organisers how much they enjoyed the events they went to, but we have a number of industry-focussed awards, decided by panels of experts who will highlight those crucial behind-the-scenes elements which the public doesn't usually consider."

Decided by a combination of public vote and industry juries, these Awards are the only pan-European body solely dedicated to recognising the contributions and achievements of the event organisers and performing artists that generate billions of Euros for local economies and brighten up the summer for tens of millions of festival-goers each year.

Public voting runs from 24th October - 6th December Vote online http://eu.festivalawards.com/

Presented as a partnership between Festival Awards Ltd, YOUROPE and Eurosonic Noorderslag, the Festival Awards Europe will take place on Wednesday, 11th January 2012 at Groningen's De Oosterpoort in The Netherlands, on the opening night of Eurosonic Noorderslag. Winners will be announced on the night with live acts and aftershow party.

YOUROPE Chairman Christof Huber commented: "We have seen the Festival Awards Europe grow massively since the launch in 2009. More festivals are taking part in the awards, the number of votes has increased drastically and we feel much more support and interest from bands, sponsors and media in the awards. We are proud to be involved in it and we look forward to a next big step forward "

EuroSonic Noorderslag Creative Director Peter Smidt concluded: "Starting Eurosonic Noorderslag on Wednesday 12th January with the European festival Awards and under the same roof the European Border Breakers Awards feels like the ideal opening night were both the best European festivals and artists are awarded."

This year's Award Categories are as follows:
1. Best Major European Festival
2. Best Medium-Sized European Festival
3. Best Small European Festival
4. Best New European Festival
5. Best Indoor Festival
6. Best European Festival Line-Up
7. YOUROPE Green 'N' Clean Festival Of The Year
8. Artist's Favourite European Festival
9. Best Newcomer
10. Best Headliner
11. Festival Anthem of the Year
12. Virtual Festivals Europe presents Promoter Of The Year
13. YOUROPE Lifetime Achievement Award

Last year, more than 350,000 public votes saw festivals as diverse as Poland's Heineken Open'er, Ireland's Electric Picnic and Germany's Melt! pick up awards, while Roskilde legend Leif Skov was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Quotes from last years winners:

Stuart Gaibraith, Kilimanjaro and Sonisphere co-founder "It's great to win an award and I think it's brilliant for the European Festival awards to take place because it recognises all the effort that everyone in our industry puts in each year and to have fans vote for it. "

Damien O'Donohoe, Oxegen Festival "We've just won the best line up which is probably the best honour any festival can get. It's really important to have to have these awards and to recognise all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes and also the artists, the management the agents who are all responsible for making Oxygen so special. "

Mikolaj Ziolkowski, Heineken Open'er Festival "We just won the best major festival for a second time in a row. It's really exciting and the most important because it's a public vote, so maybe we are not the best festival, maybe we are not the most beautiful festival, but what is the most important is that we've got the most involved audience. When the people feel that this is their festival, they want to participate and be involved and they want to vote for us second time in a row."

Stefan Lehmkuhl, Melt Festival "It was a really big pleasure and a honour for me to win the artist favourite festival as we didn't expect it as the competition was against Roskilde and all the big major festivals so obviously we did something right and we appreciate the guys who come not only fore the money to our lovely festival but we have a really nice atmosphere and there is a special kind of melt! Vibe going on."

Contact:
For more info on the awards, last years winners, photos and press accreditation's contact nikki ( @ ) globalpublicity dot co dot uk

Website: http://eu.festivalawards.com/

###

space

Other Related Press Releases