Popgala Noord

During Popgala Noord 2023, seven awards were presented in honour of Northern pop culture. A total of seven awards were presented by a professional jury, in the categories Best Artist, Best Talent, Best Stage, Best Festival and three honorary awards in the categories Best Technical Supplier, Best Inclusive Initiative and the Lifetime achievement award.

The jury led by Joey Ruchtie, ESNS programmer, consisted of: Fiep Wagt - VISION, Ico Balt - Lake Woozoo, Leo Hegge - Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Drenthe & musician, Evert Hoven - The Bake Shop, Evelyn Andoh - Friesland Pop, Doortje Hiddema - TivoliVredenburg, Welcome to The Village.

Joost walked off with the award for Best Artist, Schau Schau with the award for Best Talent, OOST was awarded as Best Stage and festival Explore the North as Best Festival.

Honorary awards

In addition to these four awards, three honorary awards were also presented. In the category Best Technical Supplier, Patrick Kramer goes home with the awards. The Jury praised him because he has been a respected lighting technician for many years, having worked for many major events. Not only is he a good technician, he is also an important mentor and teacher for young talent.

As Best Inclusive Initiative, the Jury awarded Club On-Beperkt in Emmen, an entertainment venue for people with (mild) mental disabilities. The Jury awarded this initiative because it ensures that more people can enjoy an evening out, and because it is a totally new concept in our region.

Finally, the lifetime achievement award is presented to Sjouke Nauta, one of the founders of Friesland Pop. He receives the award for all the hard work he has done for Frisian pop culture and talent development. He pulled the cart of Friesland Pop for 30 years and remained committed until just before his departure. He released another four cassettes and photo book of the leading Frisian acts he worked with.

Popgala Noord 2022 was different than other years. This is very noticeable in the 5 awards that are presented this year. The Omdenk-Award was introduced last year for the best initiative in the music industry during the corona crisis. The other awards are the Best Talent award, the Best Artist Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award and the audience prize for the colleague of the year, where people can vote for their favorite colleague. 

Popgala Noord 2022 took place as a digital event on January 18 at 17:00h CET.

Best Artist
The winner of the Best Artist award is The Vices. The band from Groningen got national fame with their debut album ‘Looking For Faces’ and played a lot  of shows on national tv.

Omdenk-Award
KopjeK won this year’s Omdenk-Award because of their ability to organise unique house and techno events during a pandemic.

Best Talent
T A M A R was the winner of the Best Talent award. Her poetic songwriting is praised by the jury.

Lifetime Achievement Award
Peter Weening, promotor for the legendary club Vera took home the lifetime achievement award.

Colleague of the year
Lisan van der Deijl took home the Colleague of the year  award. She’s praised by her colleagues for her leadership and care for the development of talent in the province of Drenthe.

Popgala Noord is a project of ESNS and is made possible by We the North, Dagblad van het Noorden, POPgroningen, Friesland Pop en Stichting Kunst & Cultuur.