Awards Business News Gigs & Festivals

European Festival Awards presented

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 16 January 2014

So the Eurosonic showcase festival and music convention got underway yesterday with the European Festival Awards celebrating the great, and let’s not forget the good, from across the European festival community.

And what an evening. What a night. What a party. What a celebration. I’m guessing. I’m wasn’t there. I wasn’t invited. Something to do with all the unnecessary sarcasm in this paragraph. Just for the record, I think the Festival Awards are great.

I mean, festivals are immensely popular with people across Europe so it’s a delight to recognise the many achievements of the continent’s festival community. What do you think Festival Awards boss James Drury? “Festivals are immensely popular with people across Europe and it’s been a delight to toast the achievements of a great 2013 with the best in the continent”. Yeah, I think that’s what I said.

Anyway, here are the winners. It seems the best festivals are all in Germany. Who knew?

Best Small Festival: FUSION Festival (Romania)
Best Medium-Sized Festival: Melt! Festival (Germany)
Best Major Festival: EXIT Festival (Serbia)
Best New Festival: B.my.Lake (Hungary)
Best Indoor Festival: Metal Hammer Paradise (Germany)
Artist’s Favourite European Festival: Lowlands (Netherlands)

Headliner Of The Year: Arctic Monkeys
Newcomer Of The Year: Imagine Dragons
Festival Anthem Of The Year: Daft Punk – Get Lucky

Best European Festival Line-Up: Berlin Festival (Germany)
Innovation Award: Paleo Festival (Switzerland)
The Green Operations Award: Way Out West (Sweden)
Promoter Of The Year: FKP Scorpio (Germany)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Marek Lieberberg (Germany)