Fira Mediterrània de Manresa and the Annual Conference of the European Folk Network

One of my highlights of the conference was the panel I moderated. The topic was broad, and the speakers were able to talk for a few minutes at the beginning, presenting their activities related to the theme: diversity and inclusion. Some of the ideas reminded me of the enriching panel from the previous year in Kaustinen, with the participation of Birgit Ellinghaus (whose full speech can be read here) and Alan Ibrahim (with whom I had an eye-opening interview about several issues, available here).

Alan Ibrahim spoke last year and also in that interview about the label refugee, which is often placed above one’s artistic abilities (he is a classical guitarist), overshadowing them. Imed Alibi, the Tunisian percussionist, composer and cultural thinker, in his intervention at this year’s panel, spoke about the term cliché in the same line. Peter Van Rompaey explained that the group promoted by MuziekPublique, Refugees for Refugees, decided to change its name to “Refa” precisely to avoid maintaining that cliché, so that what was put in value for the public was their art, not their status. He explained that once they changed the name, since the word “Refugee” no longer appeared on the poster, some programmers refused to book the group.

This, among many other ideas, came up regarding inclusion related to ethnic origin. Another topic we discussed was ageism, and how there is an age when artists are not young anymore but not old enough to be considered legends. The general agreement was that such ageism does exist. I believe this will become a hot topic in our sector in the near future.

The truth is that this is a subject about which I have strong opinions, and I couldn’t — nor did I want to — limit myself to merely moderating. Fortunately, we had an hour and a half in the context of a packed two-day conference, with activities from morning until the start of the evening. Some of my ideas I had already shared last March at Babel Music XP, in the panel “The New Narratives for Traditional Music in the Face of Current Political Challenges”, to which I was invited as part of the EFN by FAMDT. The full panel is available here.

My point then and now is that Europe’s demographic reality is what it is: the population is diverse. In Ireland, 21.8% of the population was born abroad; in Austria, 21.6%; Sweden, 20.4%; Germany, 19.5%; and in my country, Spain, 17.1%.

At that moment in Babel Music XP, I mentioned Sofia Labropoulou, a Greek kanun player based in Vienna, who runs in her adopted city the music series Unbounded Sounds (there is an interview about this, here, and here it is the program for 2025), where she performs with one artist living in Austria and another from elsewhere. The last concert of the year will feature Shabnam Parvaresh, an Iranian artist living in Osnabrück, Germany, and Matthias Loibner (Austrian). By the way, Unbounded Sounds will be done again in 2026. Bravo! I gave it as an example of the facts, of the current reality in Europe’s music scene — at least in the field of music connected in some way to the traditions of peoples. I’m not sure if pop music is different in that sense.

Returning to this year’s panel in Manresa, two other important ideas also emerged. One was the need to collect data that supports the demands we make from this sector to institutions. On this point, Laia Canals explained what they are doing through Tempi, the organization she leads in Denmark. I am sure that from our field of the art, we can improve much in this matter. For my part, I defended the idea that even though there are artistic expressions that are and will likely remain minority ones — for example, a concert of classical Persian music — we are supposed to have certain shared values in Europe, and we pay taxes for a reason. Pay attention now:

I don’t think there’s even a need to look for more references to prove that classical music in Europe is not economically self-sustaining. We all know it. Thousands of millions are invested (I was about to write “spent”) to maintain an artistic legacy made for the high classes, 300 and 200 years ago, from a very specific part of the world (Central Europe and Italy), performed by hundreds or thousands of orchestras around the world. Yet, on the other hand, we have to provide endless arguments, plead, and justify why support should be given — hoping for crumbs — to, for example, the art of Iranian women in Europe or that of persecuted peoples, whose artistic heritage is a wealth for humanity as a whole and, if it has any future, it will be in Europe. It is truly frustrating that we have to put these things in black and white, and I feel like a drop in the ocean regarding the impact I can have from here.

Returning again to the panel in Manresa, Kutay Kugay also took part — a festival producer, label manager, and music promoter of Laz ethnicity (from the Black Sea region of Turkey and Georgia), who has lived in the United States for much of his life and is now based in Istanbul. He explained how he managed to create the San Francisco World Music Festival, featuring artists from the Middle East (for instance, Aynur made her U.S. debut at his festival), with private funding. The model in the U.S. for this kind of project is entirely different from the European one (they also pay much lower taxes). I’m not sure if it’s better or worse, but in any case, for this kind of music, both systems are subject to political, ideological, and economic — and sometimes electoral — interests. It was a pleasure to have Kutay and to benefit from his experience and vision in the panel.

I ended up talking about this in the section about Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. It’s somewhat comforting that initiatives like this exist. It’s always a pleasure to attend the Fira. This year I saw only a few concerts because the conference was very intense, but I did get to watch the full concert by Krama, from Valencia, featuring the Greek musician Spyros Kaniaris and one of my favorite singers, Rafel Arnal. They are the ones in the picture with me. You can see a short clip of the concert here.

There will be a report of the conference of the EFN soon. You can sign up to receive the emailing news from the EFN for free, here.

I attended this event for the first time. We had a showcase by Ali Doğan Gönültas, as part of a program that mostly features indie, electronic, and similar music. It’s always very interesting to see the reaction of professionals from other areas of the music industry, because I see Ali simply as a musician — not specifically as a world or traditional music artist. For two reasons: because I see that people are fascinated by his performance, regardless of their personal musical background, and because I know what he is capable of, and what he will achieve in the coming years.

The program of activities is very focused on the industry, with practical workshops, like the one we attended about TikTok for artists. Also, it included several rounds of speed meetings, talks and, of course, showcases. Ali closed the opening day with his trio.

I hope I will have chances to delve more into this event in future editions.

A couple of months ago, I discovered FIMU through Instagram. I read “Open call for artists. World, Classical, Jazz & World Music.” It caught my attention mainly because they explicitly mentioned “world music” in the announcement. It was a paid ad, if I remember correctly. I didn’t know about FIMU before, but it has been held since 1987. In the October edition of the newsletter, I shared the participation conditions for artists:

• FIMU do not pay artists but partially refund transports fees. The amount of financial participation will be communicate at the end of selections. No advance can be considered. They have a calculator for the aproximate refund. I tried with the example of a 5 members band from Spain and the result was “between 600 and 720 €”.
• FIMU takes care of the accommodation and catering of the invited artists.
• FIMU can offer several concerts during the weekend (duration between 30 and 75 minutes maximum)
• FIMU provides backline. Light and sound system are managed by professional technicians of the festival.

The call is “for amateur musicians or those in the process of becoming professional musicians.” And this is the official website.

Julian Catusse, the current director of FIMU, attended WOMEX, and I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions. I’m sharing his answers here. I took the portrait from his LinkedIn profile. Neither Julien nor I are native English speakers. I’ve tried to keep it as close as possible to what he explained and how he expresses himself, and I think it’s perfectly understandable.

Araceli Tzigane: Then please explain two things. What has been the change that made that now I know about FIMO and I never knew about this event, when I coming to WOMEX every year since 2011 and I am involved in many other things. So, first, what has been the change for the communication? And why do you think the artist should apply to FIMU or why is it worth it for them to apply? 

Julian Catusse: It’s because I’m a new director for 2 years of the festival and I found a very interesting festival for professional of the music, for every kind of professions, for media, for promoters, for tour managers… for everyone. Because we have a unique lineup in all France for sure. Because the main part is a lineup built on a call for application and we received last year, for example, 1,400 applications from 87 countries. So it’s very huge. And then I asked 60 music professionals from France to select 130 bands. So last year it represented 40 countries, with 130 bands from the international emerging scene. It is selected by lovers of each kind of music. We have a selected jury for jazz music, another one for world music, another one for classical. So each time we have a very accurate selection of people who are famous for their type of music.

So when I took the direction two years ago, I thought I was too bad that the professionals in Europe didn’t know about FIMU, that for two years now I communicate a lot, to businesses and to artists to come to play
Why should the artists apply? To play in front of a large audience, because at FIMU we welcome from 30 to 40,000 people a day on three days. We have 16 stages, from 200 to 9,000 people. So, each artist, each project is in a good place to extreme their art. If you need more intimacy, we have a stage for that. If you need more space, we have it too.

The artists are applying to FIMU because they want to build a fan base in France, to be known in France. So that’s why they apply. And now I add the “pro” thing. It’s just at beginning of it. I won’t say if you come to play to FIMO you will have some shows booked, because I can’t promise it. What I can promise is to play in front of a large audience and we do the job to welcome more and more professionals each year. And what I say is the professionals who came to the festival work. So last year there were many programmers who came and booked shows. There was a promoter who booked an artist in their rooster. So the pro who came worked. Each year we get more and more professional because each time it’s a very unique lineup with emerging scenes from all around the world: 40 countries, 130 bands, all kind of music. And in fact, the artists love to play and, even if the conditions are tough, we know about it, we don’t are blind, most of the artists who played, apply again to come back, because it’s a unique experience, to share a festival feeling. Because we work to mix the artists. We have a big artist area where artists can meet from all around the world and play together. And it’s not really common in a normal tour, where you come, you play, you go. A lot of artists stay one, two, three, four… days in Belffort to live the festival and to share music with other artists.

AT: And for these artists you cover them the accommodation and the meals? 

JC: Yeah. Accommodation, meals, and technical needs, with light engineer, sound engineer, backline music instrument we can provide too. And a part of the cost of the transport: you can have an estimation on our website. We can’t pay for booking artists.

AT: And for the professionals who attend, do you invite them somehow or do you cover them the accommodation or something? 

JC: For the professionals we give them free accreditation, so it’s not expensive to come to the festival. We take care of transport from the airport and from the train station to the city center. So it’s easy to come to the festival. We have the Basel Mulhouse Freiburg airport so it’s easy to come or by TGD by train. They have access to artistic area to make business and to pro area to make business between pro. For now, we don’t afford the accommodation. But for special projects, special events, we can talk. We welcome already so many pros, so it will be difficult to say we pay for pros’ accommodation, but we don’t pay the artists. So we have to balance, and I think the professionals don’t need accommodation because they will do business for sure. The fact is not to give the desire to pro to come. It’s just to show FIMU exists. And once they know about the project of the FIMU, they already want to come. So we try to help with the transport from the airport, which is already not easy. We help but for the rest we can share our contacts and our fees for accommodation, which is cheaper for sure. So we can share it but we can’t pay for.

AT: And is it easy to find accommodation in Belfort at that time? 

JC: Yeah. We have a lot of hotels and if you compare it to other big festivals, it’s fair enough.

The first single of Bask, the new album by Xabi Aburruzaga, Beroa amesgai, is now launched! Beroa amesgai, in Euskera, means “Dreameable heat”. The lyrics, by Xabier Paya, include this strophe:

🔸#1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in October of 2025 is: Cheikh Lô’s Maame (World Circuit)