Today was the official kick-off reception at Aarhus City Hall’s Trafikhal. A lot of people showed up to to receive a warm welcome from the Mayor of Aarhus, Jacob Bundsgaard, followed by a short speech from head of the SPOT Festival, Gunnar Madsen. Thorsten Freese, general manager at Believe Digital Germany, also gave a short speech.
The Mayor of Aarhus, Jacob Bundsgaard gave among others on behalf of the city of Aarhus a warm welcome: He shared some short words about the SPOT fesitval and it´s importance to a city like Aarhus.
“SPOT contributes a big part to the danish music. SPOT opens a window that gives the oppurtinity to show the best that Denmark and Scandinavia has to offer to the rest of the world musicwise“.
Aarhus is a young city consisting of 325,000 people of which 50,000 are students what therefore makes it a very good place to organize a showcase festival like SPOT.
Followed was a welcome from head of the SPOT Festival, Gunnar Madsen, who was really delighted about the outcome of the festival and the growing importance it occupies for the bands: “The festival has evolved into a serious platform for up-and coming bands hoping to attract labels and international success, wherefore it´s value has grown”.
Furthermore, general manager at Believe Digital and director at International Distribution Germany, Thorsten Freese, did a keynote speech on export and digitalization. “SPOT has a good balance between being a festival were you can enjoy yourself as create some business contacts“. Because of Scandinavia´s good infrastructure it places itself in the top 5 of the digital distribution export market.
During the opening we also met up with a couple of the visitors;
Anna & Guro from the band Iki visited this side of SPOT for the first time. They are normally used to the other side as they both perform in the band Iki, “we are here to meet new and interesting people as an event like this can create opportunities“.
Lucy from the blog Lucy v.s the globe also visited this official opening event and tells about how she experiences SPOT. “There is this consistently good music with a bigger line up each year which is spreaded over the whole of the festival, this makes it possible to see a lot of good bands”
She is origanally from Australia but has her blog based in Berlin and looks forward to visit SPOT, not only for the good music: “Denmark is full of beautifull people , it´s no crime to come here during SPOT“.
As to which bands she would definitely recommend for this years SPOT: Iberia, Naomi Pilgrim, Amason, Blaue Blume and Sea Change.
