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Latvia and Lithuania confirmed as featured countries at The Great Escape
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 18 March 2016
The Great Escape has announced that the music industries of Latvia and Lithuania will be under the spotlight this year, with Music Export Latvia and The Lithuanian Music Business Association the lead international partners of this year’s edition of the showcase festival.
A number of artists from the two countries will appear at TGE as part of the market spotlight programme, with Lithuania’s Without Letters and Alina Orlova, and Carnival Youth and Howling Owl from Latvia, already confirmed. Representatives from both countries’ respective music industries will also be amongst the delegation, looking to connect with TGE’s business audience from across the world.
Confirming the alliance between TGE and the two Eastern European markets, Vaidas Stackevičius, director of the Lithuanian Music Business Association, told reporters: “The Great Escape caught us by surprise offering to focus on our countries, we hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly! But this is what The Great Escape is all about; discovering new talents, exploring new territories and delivering surprises. We are very proud and look forward to being the lead country focus together with Latvia at the festival for new music”.
Meanwhile Agnese Cimuška, CEO of Music Export Latvia, added: “The Great Escape was one of the first music industry events [in which] Music Export Latvia started to take part. It was only three years ago and now to be one of the focus countries shows that we have made our mark very quickly. It was possible because of the open-minded people working at The Great Escape. We appreciate their trust in us, our industries and talents”.
Other announcements from TGE HQ yesterday included an alliance with the Raindance Film Festival, which will see a small programme of music-based movies screened as part of the proceedings. That includes ‘Suede: Night Thoughts’, the film that accompanied the band’s new album earlier this year. The TGE screening will be followed by a conversation between the film’s director Roger Sargent, actor Alex Wilton, who appears in the movie, and Suede frontman Brett Anderson.
TGE 2016 takes place from 19-21 May with, of course, CMU Insights @ TGE in the middle of the convention proceedings. Find out more about what will be happening there here and then get your delegates pass here.
