Good news out of Groningen.
The first wave of booking results from this January’s Eurosonic have landed, and Irish acts are dominating – Florence Road, Madra Salach and Dove Ellis are the three most booked acts from the entire festival across Europe.
The headline numbers: 106 confirmed shows for 61 artists across 39 partner festivals. Acts who play Eurosonic are automatically plugged into the European Talent Exchange programme – part of the EU’s Creative Europe initiative – connecting them with around 130 partner festivals across Europe and beyond.
Two Irish acts are the joint top artists on the latest list.
- Florence Road – 9 bookings: OpenAir St. Gallen, Primavera Sound, Kendal Calling, Rock Werchter, Southside Festival, Truck Festival, Y Not Festival, Down The Rabbit Hole, Hurricane Festival
- Madra Salach – 9 bookings: Ment Ljubljana, OFF Festival Katowice, Roskilde Festival, The Great Escape, Truck Festival, Les Eurockéennes De Belfort, Best Kept Secret, End of the Road, Green Man Festival
- Dove Ellis – 5 bookings: Maifeld Derby, OpenAir St. Gallen, Le Printemps De Bourges, Best Kept Secret, Immergut Festival
The full and continuously updated list of confirmed shows can be found on Radar.
Festival bookers who attended Eurosonic include End of the Road (UK), Primavera Sound (Spain), Lowlands (The Netherlands), Rock Werchter (Belgium), Southside Festival (Germany), Le Printemps de Bourges (France), Roskilde Festival (Denmark) and OFF Festival Katowice (Poland), Poplar Festival (Italy)
Ireland is the focus country for 2027
The bigger news alongside this: Ireland has been confirmed as the focus country for Eurosonic 2027 – only the second time in the festival’s history it has been given that designation. First Music Contact and RTÉ 2FM are on board as partners, with the full programme running 13-16 January 2027 in Groningen.
This is a vote of confidence in Ireland’s music artists who consistently do well at Eurosonic, like Florence Road, Dove Ellis and Madra Salach and in previous years, Madra Salach, The Mary Wallopers, CMAT, Dermot Kennedy, Fontaines D.C., Hozier, Inhaler, Lankum and more have received opportunities at the festival.
Through significant investment of resources from Culture Ireland and the Arts Council we have been able to invest in education, professionalisation and support for Irish artists and their teams, with follow up tour funding from Culture Ireland to help our artists benefit from the opportunities offered through ESNS, Ireland has taken its place as a producer of world class artists.
Angela Dorgan, First Music Contact CEO:
Over the past years we have all seen the Irish scene growing exponentially, and right now it’s fully blossoming. We want to embrace this moment and celebrate all the amazing artists that have emerged from Ireland as well as focus on future talents. Looking at the past edition of ESNS alone, Irish acts are the ones that benefited from playing in Groningen the most; with Florence Road, Madra Salach and Dove Ellis being the top three most booked acts across Europe since the festival.
Oskar Strajn, ESNS Head of Music
Artist applications are open
Artist applications for ESNS27 are open now at esns.nl.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
