In 2026, Noorderslag will celebrate its 40th anniversary. For four decades, music lovers and professionals have been coming to Groningen to spot leading artists. ESNS is marking its anniversary with a number of projects that are open to the public.
The Grote Markt and Nieuwe Markt will host the photo exhibition Then and Now, curated by concert photographer Ben Houdijk. Since 2012, he has been capturing artists at Eurosonic and Noorderslag, often at the beginning of their careers. Ten panels show the development of 19 ESNS artists up to the big stages where they now perform. The accompanying text was written by music journalist and visitor from the very beginning, Peter van der Heide.
In ESNS Photo by Noorderlicht, three photographers from the north, Nick Helderman, Niels Meijer and Jantina Talsma, share their view of music. With portraits, concert photography, video and work for album covers and magazines, they show how they capture the scene in images.
Students from the Minerva Art Academy create new visual work using four decades of ESNS photo and video material from the Groningen Archives. The art installations of ESNS Echo can be seen at various locations throughout the city.
With an ESNS Popwalk through the city centre of Groningen, NTR, NPO 3FM and ESNS are mapping out forty years of European pop history. The audio walk, which you can do with your phone via the podwalk app podwalks.npo.nl, takes walkers past more than thirty locations with iconic stories about the festival, the artists who played there and the people who worked on it.