This month👇
Editorial
🔸100 Editions, and Counting
The Experience at the Festival Haizebegi
Reminder: European Folk Network’s Annual Conference
Saîdê Goyî & Ali Doğan Gönültaş release Kewnar, the first single and video of the álbum Leçek
🔸+ What is a dengbêj
Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
Open calls and professional events:
🔸Strasbourg Music Week 2027
🔸SXSW Music Festival 2027
🔸Mozambique Music Meeting 2027
🔸The Great Escape 2027
🔸Culture Moves Europe – Individual Mobility 2026–2027
🔸MUM – Jornadas Profesionales de la Música en Extremadura
🔸EFFEA Call #5 – for festivals
Meet me at ✈️
🔸London, Kings Place
🔸Mundial Montreal
🔸Istanbul: concert of presentation of Leçek by Saîdê Goyî & Ali Doğan Gönültaş
Hello, how are you? I hope you’re well. I’m opening this monthly window today, on the last day of the month, but still in October, for the 100th edition of this newsletter. Reaching this number certainly has symbolic significance: I’ve kept up a monthly schedule without missing a single edition, and I wasn’t going to miss this one.
And since this is the 100th edition, perhaps you’d be interested in hearing about what has changed since I started, what I’ve learned along the way or the interesting connections this newsletter may have helped me make. Or perhaps there’s something else you’d like me to write about. If so, let me know!
I returned last night from La Palma, where I spent a few days after WOMEX in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The period before and during WOMEX is one of the busiest times of the year for me. The truth is that it has been fruitful and, I think, very useful. And La Palma is spectacular. Even so, I’ve managed to work on some important things over the last few days. I had an online meeting with Acción Cultural Española about the music programme for Expo Belgrade 2027. I already mentioned that I’ve been asked to advise on the music programming. What’s more, the coming weeks are going to be hectic, with a tour with Ali Doğan Gönültaş, the release of singles from what will be his third album and Vigüela’s debut in Canada at Mundial Montréal. All of this is very motivating.
On the other hand, I’m angry and sad about the train accident. In my work, and I think in the work of many of those who will receive this newsletter, public transport is essential. But this goes beyond that. Situations like this confront you with the obvious fact of how fragile we are and how defenceless we can be, even when we should be protected by institutions that are supposed to create and maintain the essential infrastructure that allows us to carry out our plans in life.
I often buy train tickets in Germany. It’s common for me to receive emails from DB informing me that certain connections will no longer be possible or that trains have been cancelled, telling me to look for alternative journeys. I already thought the situation there was terrible. And now here… After the fatal train accident in Adamuz in January, I travelled along that same stretch of railway in March, thinking that, after such a tragedy, safety measures would have been tightened to the utmost. Now I don’t know what to think anymore. More than 100 people have died in train accidents in Spain this year. There is national mourning until midnight tonight. Even so, I’m sure there will be plenty of Halloween parties today. What a paradox.
Well, I’m here on this earth, and so are you. Here’s to another 100 editions, to me writing them and you receiving them, in good health and with strength.
And you? Do you have something you would like to share with the international community working in this field? Get in touch.
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música | +34 676 30 28 82
THE EXPERIENCE AT THE FESTIVAL HAIZEBEGI
Art.Science.Société
In the photo, (9th October) I’m on Anglet beach with Vigüela and a friend we made there (Pietro Calabretta, who is doing his PhD on music and autism). We travelled there for the Haizebegi festival. It feels like a year ago… From 8 to 11 October, I was with Vigüela in the south of France, in Bayonne and the surrounding towns.
During those days, they gave two performances, one of them with dancer Sara Cano (you can see them here). They were supposed to give a workshop at a secondary school, but the night before, some students set fire to the entrance, and on the morning of the workshop there was a bonfire in front of it. It was impossible to hold the workshop.
But they were able to give a workshop for teenagers with autism, and it was one of those experiences that open your mind. They rose to the challenge. Jorge Martínez, the newest member of Vigüela, is also a music teacher and managed to involve the students in making music and connect it with the distinctive features of the traditional music of central Spain. When we had already finished, quite a few more students came along wanting to join in, and we ended up dancing with about a dozen of them.
The festival’s subtitle is Art.Science.Société, and there’s a reason for that. For example, the following week, the festival devoted part of its programme to the Yazidis, with a major Yazidi day open to the public, featuring food, music, cinema, an immersive exhibition, visual arts, encounters and literature.
We should remember that on 3 August 2014, the terrorist organisation Islamic State launched an offensive against the Yazidi population of Sinjar, in northern Iraq, near the Syrian border, with the objective of destroying the Yazidi community. The Yazidi genocide is one of the best-documented cases of religious persecution and systematic sexual slavery in the 21st century. For more information, check this.
The festival is led by Professor Denis Laborde, and the full programme is available here.
I hope to have the opportunity to meet the professor soon and talk to him for this newsletter about his vision for the festival and its objectives, which clearly go beyond creating moments of entertainment and enjoyment through music.
REMINDER: EUROPEAN FOLK NETWORK’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Under the motto “Why We’re Here”, the EFN’s 2026 Conference will take place over two full days on Friday 13 & Saturday 14 November in Almeria, Spain. The full program and registration details are here.
The Conference will explore the values upheld by traditional arts and their importance in today’s society. Keynote speaker Alistair Anderson will open the discussions, followed by a panel featuring Bernhard Hanneken and Miklós Both on how traditional arts can be protected from appropriation by political and nationalist extremism.
Education in traditional arts will be another major topic, with contributions from Vilma Timonen, Fiona Dalgetty and José Moreno Vargas. Other sessions will explore Andalusian music and dance traditions and cross-pollination between traditional music and other genres, including jazz and classical music.
The programme also includes Open Mic sessions, where delegates can present their own ideas, and Working Groups to develop practical initiatives for the coming year. Evening performances will complement the conference discussions.
SAÎDÊ GOYÎ & ALI DOĞAN GÖNÜLTAŞ: KEWNAR, FIRST SINGLE AND VIDEO OF THE ALBUM LEÇEK
The collaborative album Leçek will be released on all digital platforms on 1 December. It is a joint work by Ali Doğan Gönültaş and Saîdê Goyî, a dengbêj (I explain the term dengbêj further below). Ali has previously collaborated with him on the artistic direction of two EPs, and they have shared a friendship and mutual admiration for years. The album is a tribute to friendship and, I believe, also to the generous transmission of values and knowledges between generations.
I’m very happy to share the first single: Kewnar. It was released on 29 October. Directed by Veysel Seçen (who is also the author of the picture above), it marks the beginning of a series of five music videos, with four more to be released ahead of the album. Conceived as interconnected chapters, the five videos unfold around a shared theme, forming a single narrative.
CLICK TO WATCH KEWNAR:
Saîdê Goyî is a dengbêj from the Uludere district of Şırnak Province (called Roboskî in the local language). For years he has been singing to his small circle with many stran (songs) and narratives from his memory.
But what is a dengbêj? According to Clémence Scalbert-Yücel [i] it is a Kurdish term composed of the words deng [voice] and bêj (present tense of gotin, to tell).
Roger Lescot defined the term dengbêj in 1977 [ii] like this: “These professional poets, who over the course of years furnished their memories as apprentices of certain old masters, assumed the task of conserving the traditions of the past and, if some new event were to occur, the celebration of the heroic deeds of the present. […] Thanks to their unlimited repertoire and matchless gift of improvisation, these men transmitted, from the remotest centuries until today, poems with thousands of verses.”
[i] Clémence Scalbert-Yücel, « The Invention of a Tradition: Diyarbakır’s Dengbêj Project », European Journal of Turkish Studies [En ligne], 10 | 2009, mis en ligne le 04 janvier 2010, consulté le 16 février 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ejts/4055 ; DOI : 10.4000/ejts.4055
[ii] Lescot, Roger (1977) ‘Littérature kurde,’ in Queneau, Raymond (ed.) Histoire des littératures. Littératures anciennes, orientales et orales, Paris, Gallimard, La Pléiade, vol. 1, pp. 795-805.
BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
🔸#1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in October of 2026 has been:
Stella Papalamprou’s Protanixin (self-released).
🔸Mundofonías: the favourites of October are Stella Papalamprou’s Protanixin (self-released), Pedro Mardones’ El niño (self-released) and Ital Express’ Mekanik ho tansoù (Klam Records).
OPEN CALLS & PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
This section is open to news and announcements. It is free of charge. Please let me know if you have an open call that may be relevant to the community.
NEW CALLS IN THIS EDITION:
I haven’t personally attended Strasbourg Music Week, SXSW, Mozambique Music Meeting or The Great Escape, so I can’t share any first-hand experience of these events.
🔸Strasbourg Music Week 2027
It will take place from 11 to 14 May 2027 in Strasbourg, France.
The showcase call is open to emerging solo artists and bands of any musical genre based in France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg or French-speaking or German-speaking Switzerland. The deadline is 8 November 2026 at 11:59 PM CET. Applicants must have been active for over a year, perform original music, have released at least three tracks or have a demo, and be supported by a music industry professional or organisation.
Applications are free of charge, here.
They cover a gross performance fee for each musician (amount not specified), accommodation, an evening meal, technical facilities and an event pass per person. One accompanying technician may also be paid. Travel expenses are not covered.
What they offer: Live showcases for European music industry professionals, including festival programmers, booking agents, labels and media representatives, alongside networking opportunities, conferences and workshops.
🔸SXSW Music Festival 2027
It will take place from 15 to 21 March 2027 in Austin, Texas, USA. They don’t cover travel expenses. International artists must also check the appropriate US visa or entry requirements.
Applications are open until 20 November 2026, here. Application fee: $80 USD. It is open to all music genres, artists from around the world and signed and unsigned artists.
SXSW explicitly states that its radius clause is very lenient (details are available on its website). Its main restriction is that official artists cannot perform at unofficial shows between 7 PM and 2 AM during the festival, subject to certain exceptions. Other performances may be possible, provided they do not undermine their official showcase. Therefore artists can consider organising additional activities during the same trip to the USA. However, they must also make sure that their US immigration status allows them to do so, as permission to perform at an official SXSW showcase does not necessarily authorise additional paid performances for US-based organisations. In any case, it is interesting to know that SXSW does not impose restrictions such as prohibiting artists from performing elsewhere in the state for 30 days before and after the festival, or similar clauses.
🔸Mozambique Music Meeting 2027
It will take place from 3 to 7 March 2027 in Maputo, Mozambique.
The call for showcases is open until 30 November 2026, here. MMM welcomes applications from artists worldwide, with priority given to artists from Southern Africa, the Indian Ocean region and Portuguese-speaking countries. They don’t cover performance fees, travel expenses or other costs. They will choose 16 artists. They offer the opportunity to perform for international festival directors, programmers, booking agents, producers, media representatives and other music industry professionals.
🔸The Great Escape 2027
It will take place from 12 to 15 May 2027 in Brighton, United Kingdom.
The showcase call is open until 15 February 2027, here. Applications are free of charge and open to emerging solo artists and bands from anywhere in the world, across all musical genres. Applications are open to independent, unsigned and signed artists.
They offer the opportunity to perform at a festival featuring more than 450 emerging artists across over 30 venues in Brighton. As usual, selected artists can present their music to international booking agents, festival programmers, record labels, media representatives and other music industry professionals. The festival also hosts an international music industry conference and networking events.
🔸Culture Moves Europe – Individual Mobility 2026–2027
This EU-funded programme supports artists and cultural professionals who want to develop an international project in another country participating in Creative Europe. It is open to professionals working in music, performing arts, cultural heritage and several other cultural sectors, regardless of their level of experience.
It is a competitive programme: in the 2025–2026 call, approximately one in five applications were funded.
The next application deadline is 30 November 2026, with further monthly deadlines until 30 April 2027 (except December).
Applications are assessed on five main criteria: project relevance, the need for international mobility, preparation and collaboration with the international partner, expected results and long-term impact, and environmental sustainability. Applicants must address two of the programme’s four objectives: Explore, Create, Learn and Connect.
The programme does not fund trips whose sole purpose is to perform existing work or attend professional events. A convincing application should demonstrate why travelling to the chosen destination is necessary.
Official call and application, here.
THESE CALLS WERE ALREADY INCLUDED IN THE PREVIOUS MONTH:
🔸MUM – Jornadas Profesionales de la Música en Extremadura
The eleventh edition of this professional event will take place in Mérida from 14 to 16 April. Applications are open until 20 November 2026 at 14:00 CET, here.
It is a showcase-style event and covers some costs, including one night’s accommodation, lunch or dinner on the day of the performance and €200 per musician, taxes included, as a contribution towards travel expenses, among other things. Check the official website for full details.
The event is primarily focused on the Spanish market. In fact, the website is only available in Spanish. However, they usually invite some international programmers, and almost always some from neighbouring Portugal.
🔸EFFEA Call #5 – for festivals
Official announcement available here. The European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA) opened the call on 1 September 2026, with applications closing on 3 November 2026.
Applications are submitted by a lead festival, working with at least two partner festivals from other countries.
The partnership develops a residency and international circulation opportunities for one emerging artist or collective during 2027.
The lead festival receives and manages the grant, rather than the artist applying directly.
Two schemes are available: Discovery – €8,000 and Springboard – €15,000. Please note that €1,000 is deducted from Discovery grants and €2,000 from Springboard grants to cover shared programme activities.
Around 50 residencies are expected to be supported.
Territorial restrictions:
- The lead festival and the two mandatory partner festivals must each be based in a different eligible country. Festivals based in Israel, Palestine, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK may participate only as partner festivals, not as the lead festival.
- The artist does not need to come from a different country from the participating festivals. The artist must either hold the nationality of or have an official address in an eligible country. Eligible countries include all EU Member States plus Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.
For festival programmers, this can be a useful opportunity to develop an artist jointly with international festival partners and share the costs of presenting and supporting their work across borders.
MEET ME AT
- 8 November, London. Concert by Ali Doğan Gönültaş at Kings Place. Check Ali’s dates on the website.
- 17-22 November. Mundial Montreal. Performance by Vigüela and their premiere in Canada! 🎉 They are included in the official program and our participation is supported by Sounds from Spain / ICEX.
- 12-17 December. Istanbul. Concert of presentation of Leçek by Saîde Goyî & Ali Doğan Gönültaş + professional meetings.