European Festival Awards nominations open and new voting system announced

Following its successful fourth edition in January, the EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARDS, presented in association with YOUROPE and Eurosonic Noorderslag, will return in the New Year, with the gala award show on the first night of Eurosonic Noorderslag on Wednesday 15th January 2014 at De Oosterpoort in Groningen, The Netherlands.

Nominations are now open and will run until September 27, 2013, during which time festivals can put themselves forward using the simple online form at: eu.festivalawards.com/apply

Decided by a combination of public vote and industry juries, the European Festival Awards are the only pan-European body solely dedicated to recognising the contributions and achievements of the event organisers and performing artists that generate billions of Euros for local economies and brighten up the summer for tens of millions of festival-goers each year.

Festival Awards Managing Director, James Drury, said: “It’s been a really exciting year for festivals across Europe and I’m expecting further growth in the number of festivals participating, on the back of last year’s fantastic growth. European promoters have a great healthy sense of competition and it’s going to be exciting to find out which events the fans loved the most.”

Last year’s European Festival Awards featured over 300 festivals from 32 different countries, with over 500,000 votes. Public voting in this year’s Awards will commence on October 1 and close on November 1. For the fifth edition of the awards there will be the addition of a jury vote alongside the fan votes. The following are decided by public vote (75% of the total vote) and jury vote (25%):
•    Best Small Festival
•    Best Medium-Sized Festival
•    Best Major Festival
•    Best New Festival
•    Best Indoor Festival

2012 Winners:
•    Best Major Festival: Tomorrowland (Belgium)
•    Best Medium-Sized Festival: Heineken Balaton Sound (Hungary)
•    Best Small Festival: Tauron New Music Festival (Poland)
•    Headliner Of The Year: Foo Fighters (Usa)
•    Newcomer Of The Year: Of Monsters And Men (Iceland)
•    Best European Festival Line-Up: Rock Am Ring/ Rock Im Park (Germany)
•    Best Indoor Festival: Sensation (Netherlands)
•    Festival Anthem Of The Year: Lykke Li – ‘I Follow Rivers’ (Sweden)
•    Best New Festival: Electro Magnetic (Germany)
•    The Lifetime Achievement Award: Herman Schueremans (Live Nation Belgium)
•    Promoter Of The Year: Pukkelpop (Belgium)
•    Artists’ Favourite Festival: Roskilde (Denmark)
•    Green Operations Award: We Love Green (France)