Spotlight on ... The Great Escape !

This past May, thousands of industry professionals descended upon Brighton in East Sussex to attend the annual premier festival showcasing indie/pop/rock music in the United Kingdom. Each year, The Great Escape draws 5,000 professionals in addition to 10,000 festival goers along with 300 bands to create the ideal place to meet and experience the latest in music. This annual meeting attracts the entire British and European music industry including artistic directors, festival programmers, agents, distributors, labels, managers, brands and more into one place. 30% of these festival delegates come from outside of the UK including throughout Europe, India, the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.

In addition to three days of concerts throughout the city, The Great Escape also included the Great Escape Convention, which took place in The Brighton Dome. The Convention was programmed by the professionals behind CMU, which is the largest news provider for the UK music industry. It included panels and debates for industry professionals, key note interviews, case studies, Q&A sessions, new music entrepreneur presentations and educational workshops. This ran alongside a series of networking sessions, lunches and parties that allowed delegates to establish new or reconnect with industry contacts such as Meet The Bookers, Meet The Agents and Digital Demo Party where professionals could meet digital service provider representatives. Along with The Great Escape, the festival also encompassed Alternative Escape. Encompassing over twenty additional venues, The Alternative Escape provided secret and matinee showcases along with late night entertainment throughout Brighton. Thus it has become crucial for Bureau Export to be present at this key international festival and to use it in order to support the development of French artists abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom.

With its goal to boost visibility of ‘Made in France’ music through a selection of French groups, Bureau Export in London has become very close to the organisers of The Great Escape.

In collaboration with the festival, each year Bureau Export proposes a list of artists produced in France and export priorities by the French music industry to be developed in England the following year to the festival’s programmer. From this list, at least 10 artists are chosen for the next edition’s line-up. This year the 15 French artists included: Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains, La Femme, Mesparrow, We Were Evergreen, College, Django Django, We Have Band, Citizens!, Juveniles, Stranded Horse, Cheveu, Singtank, Mutiny on the Bounty, Madeon and Flip Grater.

For the third year in a row, the Bureau Export in London organised the French Party, which has become one of the can’t-miss meetings of The Great Escape. It continued to be an important networking event for professionals and media present with 300 people who participated to discuss French talent in a relaxed atmosphere. This year’s edition took place Friday, May 11^th in collaboration with Pernod Ricard. To energize the evening, the much-buzzed about indie pop group François & the Atlas Mountains performed an intimate semi-acoustic set for the occasion.

Finally, in agreement with participating French labels and 7Digital, Bureau Export in London offered festival goers and professionals a digital compilation of 11 participating French artists as a free download during the festival and two weeks after. This compilation was accessible through a QR code on the event flyer “France @ The Great Escape,” which was inserted in the 3,000 delegate goodie bags. Additionally this year, thanks to the partnership between Bureau Export and La Blogothèque, a production team filmed French artists programmed at The Great Escape as well as Bureau Export in action in Brighton. La Blogothèque previously filmed SXSW last March during the “France Rocks Austin 2012” operation coordinated by the Bureau Export in New York.

In partnership with Bureau Export