- The 16th edition of the international new music and city festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW) took place last week, from April 3 – 7 in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
- TMW 2024 hosted 175 artists from 35 countries, 168 conference speakers and over 1200 music and culture industry professionals from all over the world. The event drew a total of 18 317 visits.
The 16th edition of TMW, the festival of “tomorrow’s music, arts and ideas” filled Tallinn with music from around the world, tackled the present and future of the music industry and offered explorations from art to diverse neighbourhoods across the capital of Estonia.
President of Estonia Alar Karis welcomed TMW artists, guests and festival partners at the opening reception in Von Krahl on Thursday, April 4. Thanking the festival team for 16 years of resilient work, he said, “Culture has been called “the way of life for a whole society”. But culture does not develop and flourish in isolation. Therefore, it is important to come together, exchange experiences, learn from each other and understand others. To do more in cooperation with other countries in Europe and the world, to value and support every talent so that it can shine brighter because, in the end, it will be our collective win.”
The 3-day music showcase festival reached Telliskivi Creative City, Old Town, Rotermanni Quarter, Noblessner Port and Kopli area, showcasing 175 artists from 35 countries from all over Europe, North and South America, East Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania. The festival presented an all-time-record number of Finnish and Canadian artists and new international co-curators like the European Capital of Culture Oulu2026, the global classical and art music network Classical:NEXT, a nomadic platform Yugofuturism, NERDS (North European Resonance and Dissonance Society) and Lithuanian Opium Club. The multi-genre programme emphasised local manifestations of global trends, traditional styles and future fusions.
The 2-day TMW music industry conference in Nordic Hotel Forum opened on Friday, April 5 with addresses by former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Director of Music Estonia Ave Sophia Tölpt and Founder and Director of TMW Helen Sildna.
President Ilves highlighted the importance of the event, saying, “Here we are at the dusk of the post-Cold War era, we don’t know what lies ahead but what I count on is the creative minds of Tallinn Music Week coming up with new ideas. Ezra Pound said poets are the antennae of the race, I like to think of Tallinn Music Week as one of the antennae of Europe.”
In the keynote leading to the opening panel, CEO of Tampere-talo Group Paulina Ahokas said, “The impacts of music, events and art thoroughly permeate our society: our effects on employment, the economy, visibility, image, well-being, as well as learning capacity are extensive and have been profoundly studied. We need to bring people together and make sure everyone is involved.” Read more
Celebrating 5 years of transformative impact and charting the path forward for gender equity in music, Keychange announced the Impact Evaluation Report (2018 – 2023) and unveiled Keychange Manifesto 2.0 Rewind and Fast Forward at the TMW conference.
Joe Frankland, CEO at PRS Foundation says, “As one of the original partners for the Keychange movement, TMW has achieved its Keychange Pledge target since 2018 and continues to innovate with its lineup and a most welcoming and human-focussed conference. TMW was the natural home for the launch of our impact report and the Keychange Manifesto 2.0 which will certainly shape our collective effort to forge a more inclusive and more effective music industry.”
Curated in collaboration with the national music export and development office Music Estonia, the conference addressed themes from Liveurope’s decennial and mobility in the age of climate change, highlighted the potential of the FinEst joint area and introduced regional markets from the Balkans to Southeast Asia. There were discussions on the future of FM radio and music education and new global and local trendcasts by festival heads, curators and conceptualists from all over the world. The conference also introduced the launch of Music Tech Europe – a pan-European accelerator committed to building bridges between the music and tech sectors – and presented e-Residency as a tool to facilitate global creative sector collaboration. TMW hosted the annual EMEE (European Music Exporters Exchange) meeting and welcomed diverse music industry delegations around the world.
About 170 music industry professionals, entrepreneurs, policymakers, journalists and artists spoke at the TMW conference.
The TMW city festival took the audience on day trips through, art, food, historic musical trails public talks and city stage gigs from PoCo Pop Art Museum to Viru Keskus and Burning Man’s art-mutant-car Traveling Hedgehog, and from the Record Fair to the opening of the DIY Kosovo Music Embassy, showing how communal spirit can transform our cities into better places for all.
TMW 2024 in numbers
- 175 artists from 35 countries Lineup
- 168 conference speakers. Lineup
- 1226 PRO delegates/music industry representatives
- 28 music showcase nights across 11 music venues
- 37 programme locations across Tallinn
- 18.317 festival visits
A more detailed overview of the TMW 2024 festival on the TMW website.
