Australia chosen as the focus country for Germany’s Reeperbahn festival 2019, “an impressive amount of outstanding talent”

Australia will be the focus country for Germany’s Reeperbahn festival next year.

It is held in Hamburg on September 18—21.

The announcement was at the festival following export body Sounds Australia’s Aussie BBQ showcase which featured 11 acts including Ziggy Alberts, The Babe Rainbow and Ecca Vandal.

Alexander Schulz, Reeperbahn festival’s director made the announcement after another hugely successful year for Australian artists in Hamburg.

“The list of bands and artists with a huge diversity of musical genres coming out of Australia that venture into international careers is absolutely impressive.

“This is in no small amount due to the ever vibrant live scene of the country and also the outstanding work of Sounds Australia, the governmental support program that helps emerging Australian artists at a certain level to gain professional international experience.

“The annual Aussie BBQ is a highlight event at Reeperbahn festival… and we are proud to announce Australia as the focus country 2019!”

Sounds Australia’s export music producer Glenn Dickie, who was on the site, said after the announcement,

“Sounds Australia will be marking 10 years of Australian music export in 2019, so we cannot wait to be able to celebrate this milestone in Hamburg with an even bigger presence of Australian music as the 2019 Reeperbahn festival focus country.

“The Australian profile at Reeperbahn has grown very quickly over the last four years in particular, so it is the perfect time to capture that momentum and turn the volume up!”

Sounds Australia will be producing a slate of activity to support Australia’s presence in the market that will see an increased opportunity for building relationships with key music industry networks and showcasing more talent throughout Germany and Europe.

It will also work with APRA AMCOS to hold a SongHubs program, bringing together German and Australian songwriters, producers and creatives to make new music.

Australian acts who have played Reeperbahn include The Temper Trap, Methyl Ethel, Lisa Mitchell, Alex the Astronaut, Dean Lewis, Jen Cloher, Safia, Parcels and Client Liaison.

Many have cuts deals for Europe as a result of their appearances.

This year it drew 40,000 over four days to catch 600 concerts in 90 venues, as well as events in the fields of fine art, film, literature, and education.

The Australian industry has noted that Germany has overtaken the UK as the largest music market in Europe, and the third largest globally behind the US and Japan.

So it has earmarked Germany as the entry point to Europe.

Last year a number of German label executives and promoters held panels at the Face The Music conference in Melbourne, and later visited some other states to meet Australian industry figures.

Reeperbahn’s head of music programming, Bjørn Pfarr said: “I am thrilled and super excited to have Australia as our partnering country in 2019.

“Worldwide, they are definitely only one of a handful of countries with such an impressive amount of outstanding talent.”