The 13th edition of the international music and city festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW) that together, the festival drew 17 325 visits.
The TMW music festival presented 177 artists from 21 countries across 29 showcase nights at the Telliskivi Creative City, Port Noblessner and Old Town Tallinn. Among the internationally known performers were A Place To Bury Strangers and DVS1 from the US, Hatari from Iceland and Gerd Janson from Germany.
Together with the festival presenter Telia, the music programme was opened on 30 Octonian musicians Jonas Kaarnamets and Erki Pärnoja, Jonas Bjerre from the Danish group Mew, and the American musicologist Alex Maiolo.
The opening concert audience was greeted by welcome speeches from the President of the Republic of Estor of TMW Helen Sildna.
In her speech, President Kersti Kaljulaid said that on the fragmented and pandemic weary cultural landscape, TMW has an important role in creating a shared space for discussions. On all the questions raised on culture and values, the president said that “even discussing them, I think, definitely takes us closer to as much good as possible. A greener planet. A more considerate society. A more supportive community. A free society for as many as possible on this Earth.”
“We all need vibrant, open, supportive and creative cities and societies, and TMW team does a lot to raise awareness and have a stronger positive impact!”
At the opening night reception, the founder of club HALL Elena Natale received the Inspiration Award from the international music industry gender equality movement Keychange, for her contributions tourism map with the Club HALL.
The TMW Creative Impact Conference was opened at the Nordic Hotel Forum on Friday, 1 Octor of TMW Helen Sildna.
128 representatives from music and culture from 18 countries spoke at the conference at Nordic Hotel Forum and club HALL. The British musician and activist Billy Bragg was interviewed by the journalist Artemy Troitsky about the role of music and freedom of speech in the fight against authoritarianism. Bragg’s interview was preceded by the keynote speech “30 Years of Independence – Did Estonia.
The main theme of the conference was the interaction between the global and the local in impacting the new era of cultural diplomacy, as well as safe event organisation, fair streaming practices, and the current situation and new directions on the Estonian and European music markets. The takeaways from the discussion about night-time economy at Club Hall were that this field and its stakeholders should be trusted and supported, not inhibited by increasingly stringent restrictions.
The conference panel recordings are available for viewing for TMW PRO and DigiPRO clients via the new digital platform pro.tmw.ee created by the strategic design agency Velvet.
The daytime city festival programme was the culmination of the month that the city of Tallinn dedicated to city stages during the festival.
The TMW public discussions Talks invited everyone to Bury Strangers about DIY culture, and the Icelandic provocateurs Hatari.
The gallery tonian Academy of Arts.
The TMW Tastes programme helped navigate through the best cuisine of the capital’s dining scene and introduced the newly opened Nordic organic fare restaurant Peet Ruut adjacent tor VIVITA for kids and youth, the mini festival for kids was held, and the local record fair Plaaditurg led the second hand record swap meet.
The festival concluded with a bike tour of Tallinn’s largest district Lasnamäe.
To ensure a safe festival experience, the main programme participation was possible only with an EU digital COVID certificate or a negative rapid test result.
The next edition of TWM is scheduled to take place on 4 – 8 May 2022. TMW 2022 passes are on sale at the TMW web shop and the artist application is open until 19 December at tmw.ee.
Tallinn Music Week 2021 in numbers:
- 177 music programme artists from 21 countries, of them 103 from Estonia
- 128 conference speakers from 18 countries
- 60 festival venues, including 16 music programme venues
- 7 772 music festival visitors
- 922 conference visitors on location and via the digital platform
- In total 17 325 festival visits
