Summary 👇
Editorial
🔸Showcases and the structural imbalance between supply and demand in the cultural sector
🔸Gaining visibility for heritage-based music. Who owns it? Who can represent it? Where are the heritage-based musics?
European Folk Network Announces Its Annual Conference
Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
Open calls and professional events:
🔸Visa for Music (Rabat, Morocco)
🔸Premio Andrea Parodi (Cagliari, Sardinia)
🔸Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. Call for artists
A Little Note From Me
Meet me at ✈️
Hello, how are you? I am well. 
A week ago I returned from Babel Music XP, where I spent a few busy and engaging days. In the photo, standing in front of the European Folk Network stand, you can see Ann Helen Erichsen (FolkOrg), Caroline Van Der Linden (Muziekpublique), myself, and Juan Antonio Vázquez (Mundofonías / Mil Mundos / TWMC, etc.). Following on from what I experienced there, I would like to comment on a couple of points.
▫️Showcases and the structural imbalance between supply and demand in the cultural sector
This is something I’ve talked about in other contexts, but not yet here—and Babel Music XP brought it back very clearly. What is the relationship between these two issues? There isn’t a direct one. That is, one is not the cause of the other. However, what is currently happening with showcases is very illustrative in relation to the other issue.
At Babel Music XP I met Jordi Fosas, artistic director of Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. The Fira is not strictly a showcase, as most of its performances are open to the public and tickets are sold. They also pay—if not all, at least most—artists a negotiated fee, while exposing them to potential clients. They run an active delegates programme, bringing in programmers, agents, and journalists who attend the performances. It could be seen as something in between a showcase and a festival. Jordi told me that, despite programming very little theatre (their focus is more on music, dance, and street performances), this year they had received around 1,500 applications for theatre projects. I don’t know how they can manage that. I suggested introducing a submission fee. Not long ago I submitted proposals to Mundial Montreal and they charged 45 Canadian dollars. WOMEX also charges, if I remember correctly, between 15 and 25 euros depending on the submission date. Babel Med charged as well in its last announced edition in 2018, which was ultimately cancelled due to a major funding cut (more info: https://worldmusiccentral.org/babel-med-music-2018-world-music-showcase-cancelled/).
What does this have to do with the structural imbalance between supply and demand in the cultural sector? It is a symptom. For every performance slot, there are dozens or even hundreds of proposals that could make sense.
In recent weeks I have had the pleasure of serving as a jury member for the world music showcase of A To Jazz. It has genuinely been a pleasure, as the quality of the proposals was very high and it allowed me to discover artists I was not familiar with. The showcase will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on July 2. The programme has already been announced: https://atojazz.bg/en/showcase/
The organisation sent us 78 proposals, from which I could have selected 42 for just 12 slots. The financial support for artists is very limited. For most of them, participating implies an investment. When, as an artist or manager, you decide to move forward with something like this, you have to trust that on the other side they will guarantee exposure to stakeholders who can contribute to your career.
This experience reinforces what I mentioned earlier: even when participation requires an investment, the number of viable artistic proposals for each slot vastly exceeds the market’s capacity to absorb them.
What we are dealing with here is a structural imbalance between supply and demand in the cultural sector. There are far more artistic projects, artists, and proposals being produced than there are available programming slots, budgets, or audiences capable of sustaining them. In other words, not everything that is created can realistically circulate or be economically viable.
This imbalance is clearly visible in practice. There is an abundance of bands and projects in circulation, and a growing number of showcases and professional platforms. However, the number of actual opportunities remains limited: festival slots are scarce, fees are often constrained, and artist rotation is relatively narrow. The result is intense competition for visibility and bookings.
This situation is not accidental but driven by several structural factors. Barriers to entry are lower than ever, making it easier to produce and launch artistic projects. In some contexts, public funding supports creation without a corresponding investment in distribution. There is also a strong symbolic value attached to being an artist, regardless of economic sustainability.
In such a context, those on the supply side have very limited negotiating power: when there are dozens of viable alternatives for each slot, the ability to set conditions or demand fairer terms is significantly weakened.
In this context, it is important to acknowledge that the issue is not a lack of quality or creativity. On the contrary, there is an abundance of strong artistic work. The core problem lies in the limited capacity of the market to accommodate it. More simply, there is significantly more cultural supply than effective demand. This may seem obvious, and in many ways it is. Still, I feel it is not being addressed openly enough. In practice, there is continued pressure toward more production, more projects, and more circulation, and yet the underlying structural imbalance is almost never explicitly named. In fact, the situation is worsening, as barriers to entry for starting an artistic project are lower than ever.
▫️Gaining visibility for heritage-based music. Who owns it? Who can represent it? Where are the heritage-based musics?
Thank you for the picture, Juan Antonio Vázquez.
My aim here is not to recount my entire presentation at Babel Music XP. Once the recording is publicly available, I will share it. I only wanted to bring up a couple of ideas. The truth is that the topic I was invited to speak about is one of those that matter most to me, and this challenge led me to carry out new research and reflections. I could not address the question without first identifying what we are actually talking about and what its current situation is. Heritage… whose heritage?
In my contribution, I explained how a very large part of what is currently considered heritage music and dance in Spain stems from an explicit political project, initiated in 1934 with the creation of the “Sección Femenina” by the political party Falange Española (largely inspired by the fascism of Benito Mussolini and with a strong Catholic component). From then until today, there are hundreds of “Coros y Danzas” groups that appear to preserve heritage music and dance. However, they are based on a process of collecting, reshaping, and standardising music, dance, and costumes carried out by the Sección Femenina, with the aim of creating a repertoire that would meet its ethical and aesthetic standards and that would soon serve to represent Spain internationally.
Despite this, and in contexts outside the spotlight, heritage music and dance have continued to exist in parallel up to the present day. However, accessing these traditions is difficult without direct personal contact.
In the talk, I did not only address the Spanish case. I also spoke about Gnawa music as an example of a style that has been given a very prominent position in international academic and artistic circuits, often at the expense of other Moroccan styles such as aita or chikhat, which have been comparatively neglected or sidelined.
As a symptom of how distorted this situation has become, I mentioned that in 2025 the Spanish Ministry of Culture declared the traditional genre of music and dance “jota” a Representative Manifestation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Spain. 
This is the argument: “It has been taken into account that the jota faces multiple risks and threats, such as external influences, globalization, fossilization, negative reconsideration by society, the loss of specificity caused by globalizing policies, and the lack of generational succession.” And this is the image they use to illustrate it on the website of the Ministry —clearly fighting against fossilization and the lack of generational succession… For clarity, the way they are jumping and dressed in the image reflects the “Coros y Danzas” style: deliberately edited, cleaned up, and staged for spectacle.
Moreover, the jota itself is a genre, but it is not usually performed in isolation. One plays jota, then rondeña, then returns to jota, then seguidillas… It is a whole set of genres and subgenres, none of which are more “heritage” than others. Limiting it conceptually to the jota is very poor and leaves out a vast richness of genres that, in the practice of their bearers, have the same value.
I am very grateful to my fellow panelists, Nod Knowles and Sèbastien Laussel, for sharing those moments of reflection, as well as to the audience present, with whom we had a very constructive and moving exchange.
After this, I’ll leave you with the usual sections. There’s no interview this time either, but I already have a couple planned and, if you have something to share, feel free to get in touch.
Remember: if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention.
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música | +34 676 30 28 82
EUROPEAN FOLK NETWORK ANNOUNCES ITS ANNUAL CONFERENCE
This information is from the EFN emailing about this topic. If you already received it, there is nothing new here. And if you are not receiving its news, you can subscribe here.
EFN CONFERENCE – ALMERIA: 13 & 14 NOVEMBER 2026
The conference will be hosted by EFN Member Fundación Indaliana para la Música y las Artes (Clasijazz), whose venue offers facilities for plenary sessions, breakout groups, catering and performances.
The programme will include expert speakers, panels, working groups, discussions and traditional music performances. Participants will also experience the cultural environment of Clasijazz and the city of Almeria, known for its historic centre, the Alcazaba fortress and its links to cinema, as well as a growing cultural scene.
Clasijazz, founded in 1998, is a multidisciplinary cultural centre combining performance, education and community work, with strong involvement in European and international projects.
EFN recommends arrival on Thursday 12 November and departure on Sunday 15. Almeria airport offers direct and connecting flights, with Granada and Malaga as alternatives. Train connections are available from Madrid and Barcelona.
Further details on program, registration, hotels and travel will be announced soon via EFN channels.
BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS 
🔸#1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in March of 2026 is: Neba Solo & Benego Diakité’s A Djinn and a Hunter Went Walking (Nonesuch)
🔸Mundofonías: the favourites of February have been Firelight Trio’s Midnight followed (self-released), ViGaD’s Tri, i (Fonó) and Les Fils Canouche’s Les pantophiles (Vlad Productions)
Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap.
OPEN CALLS & PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
This section is open for news. It is free of charge. You can let me know if you have any open call of relevance to the community.
This call is new in the newsletter:
🔸13th Visa for Music (Rabat, Morocco)
Artists have until April 15, 2026 to submit their applications for a chance to join the selected acts who will perform in front of music industry professionals from around the world. I have never attended this event. Perhaps this year? It will take place in Rabat, Morocco, from 18 to 21 of November.
The application form is here. Check the participation conditions there. For questions: info@anya.africa
The following calls were already in the newsletter of March:
🔸19th Premio Andrea Parodi (Cagliari, Sardinia)
It will take place from 15 to 17 October 2026 at the Teatro Massimo in Cagliari. Note that “The award is dedicated to Andrea Parodi, a highly regarded Sardinian musician in the world music scene who passed away on 17 October 2006. He is honoured every year at the event through performances of songs from his repertoire by the finalists and guests.” In this competition, the focus is on specific songs: the artist’s own compositions and their interpretation of an Andrea Parodi song, which is mandatory.
The new call for entries is available at www.premioandreaparodi.it/premio, with registration free of charge until 9 May 2026. There is more information in my previous monthly newsletter too and you can send your questions to fondazione.andreaparodi@gmail.com.
🔸Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. Call for artists
The call is open until 31th of March, for the event to take place in Vic, Catalonia, from 16th of 20th of September. Registration, here.
“The programming is structured around two lines: MMVV Pro Catalan Arts! program, designed for professionals with the aim of promoting the hiring of premieres and new proposals, and MMVV Festival program, aimed at the general public with a more playful and festive spirit. […] Proposals can be submitted for all musical styles and genres, with the exception of classical music. ”
Check the selection criteria, on the website.
No restriction about countries of origin of the artists.
A LITTLE NOTE FROM ME
In about three weeks, Ali Doğan Gönültaş will be on tour in Paris, The Hague, Leuven, Koksijde, Sint-Niklaas, Brussels, and Heist-op-den-Berg, and in May he will make his debut in Canada. This will take place in Toronto on May 16 at the Meridian Arts Centre. If you happen to be able to attend, don’t miss it. Whether you can make it or not, I’ll leave you here with a small magical moment:
Here, the zurna is played by Can Demir with percussions by Cem Mazlum:
This week (30 March – 5 April) is Easter in Spain. If there is a musical style typical of this time, apart from processional marches, it is the saeta. Devotees sing saetas to images of Jesus Christ or the Virgin, spontaneously, during the processions. This is an example of how these traditions remain alive beyond their official framing.
Mari Nieto, from Vigüela, sings a saeta whose theme goes beyond the religious:
MEET ME AT
- 9th-11th April: Budapest Ritmo.
- 18th-26th April: Tour with Ali Doğan Gönültaş in Paris, Den Haag and several cultural centers in Belgium.
- 16th May: Toronto, Meridian Arts Center (concert by Ali Doğan Gönültaş).
- 22nd May: This is not a trip for me but… perhaps for you? If you happen to be in Madrid, Vigüela will perform at the center of Madrid, in the Casa de Castilla-La Mancha en Madrid.