Although ESNS 2022 had to be conducted online because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the restrictions do not seem to have harmed the prospects of the artists who showcased their talents on the ESNS platform. ESNS22 acts secured 373 festival slot bookings in 2022, with over 150 acts benefitting as a result of their ESNS Exchange participation.

In terms of the most successful acts from this year’s ESNS Exchange, Switzerland’s Priya Ragu secured 11 bookings; Ukraine’s Alyona Alyona, UK’s Yard Act and Ireland’s CMAT also made double figure with ten bookings apiece; while the fifth most popular act on the programme, punk four-piece Enola Gay, who hail from across the border in Northern Ireland, ended 2022 with nine festival slots achieved through the exchange.

ESNS Radar also allows live music professionals to keep track of which acts have performed at ESNS 2022 and in the past, using an advanced tracking system that publishes the data in real-time onto the ESNS Radar website. Next to festival bookings, the database includes a multitude of other interesting information, including debut release dates. That information can assist festival bookers in assessing which acts are crossing borders and how long it has taken them to get noticed – an invaluable tool in the annual task to seed festival line-ups with the best emerging talent.

Topping the ESNS Exchange 2022 that enjoyed the most international success, Priya Ragu (CH) topped the 2022 imports list, with all of her bookings taking place outside of her home nation. With a focus on Ukrainian artists due to the ongoing war in her home country, Alyona Alyona’s ten festival slots took her to Ypsigrock (IT), Superbloom (DE), OFF (PL), Mad Cool (ES), Les Ardentes (BE), Pohoda (SK), Roskilde (DK), Melt (SI) and Tallinn Music Week (EE). These results neatly demonstrate the geographical reach of opportunities that the ESNS Exchange can offer to artists.

Other ESNS Exchange acts who enjoyed significant international festival success this year included CMAT with ten bookings, three of which were in the UK; and the UK’s Holly Humberstone whose online performance in 2021 helped her secure eight festival slots across the Czech Republic, Germany (x2), Finland, France, Hungary, Sweden, and the United States, where she landed a coveted spot at Coachella festival.

By means of an automatic system developed by ESNS the extensive database also tracks non-ESNS Exchange acts of the line-ups of numerous 130 festivals around the world. ESNS Radar allows users to discover that Irish act (and ESNS Alumni) Inhaler were booked by 13 festivals; Australia’s Amyl and the Sniffers proved popular around Europe with eight festival slots; Pakistan’s Arooj Aftab performed at ten festivals around the world; and American A-list act Megan Thee Stallion also enjoyed ten festival headline slots.

That wealth of rich data can be used by agents to inform them of the festivals that are most open to giving emerging talent a chance, as well as which events do not tend to book new acts. Indeed, the database can also be accessed by agents looking to add new artists to their rosters, as many acts that perform at ESNS each year are in search of representation. ESNS Radar can also point to territories and events that have supported the ESNS Exchange acts early on in their careers and may be ripe for headline tours by those acts.

The data underlines the sustainable success of the ESNS Exchange concept. 14.7% of all festival bookings measured in 2022 were previously involved in ESNS Exchange. That is 1,732 acts of the 11,763 festival slots included in the line-up research.

New acts are fundamental to festival bookers internationally. Digging a little deeper into the composition of the full scope of 2022 festival slots, 813 bookings (7%) of acts are fresh on the scene, having first released their music after 2020. Nearly 20% of the total line-ups on the surveyed festivals – 2,309 bookings – represents acts whose first release dates from the beginning of 2017. Festivals who booked the most new acts include; The Great Escape, Reeperbahn Festival, Primavera Sound, Glastonbury Festival and Montreux Jazz Festival.

ESNS booker and head of programme, Robert Meijerink, reveals that compiling the ESNS Radar database was always a dream within the organisation, but it took the pandemic closing down live music events to allow ESNS staff the time to create the system.

"If, as a booker, you are looking at an unknown Norwegian band whose music you like, the ESNS Radar allows you to see in one click what their stats are. This is valuable as it gives you the opportunity to find out even more. You can see the history of bookings, you potentially can discover how many exchange festivals have been played, and if the numbers are going up or down. It’s a fantastic tool for professionals. ESNS is eager to expand their database to include more festivals in the coming year and conduct yearly research – aspiring to provide annual insights into trends and top ESNS Exchange artists. We look forward to it!”