Submitted by Record World International
Future Echoes was back with its third edition if you count the smaller first’COVID’ Edition. The second 2021 was the first full edition but also just a week after Sweden lifted their restrictions, so this was the first edition where they could operate at their full capacity. Future Echoes wants to be a midsize boutique showcase festival and this year they were exactly that, showcasing 108 artists from over 30 countries on 12 stages.
This year the festival also did a secret VIP stop in Stockholm where they had a Canadian VIP evening before the festival started. Here they revealed that Future Echoes will get a Canadian edition in Toronto in 2024. Future Echoes hosted a lot of collaborations, this year it was with UNESCO Music Cities who had their meeting the days before the festival and pan over to Future Echoes by sharing panels and artists on the first day.
The theme for this year was including people with function variety not just as audience but also on stage. The second theme was ageism in the music industry. This also showed on the different panels that were held all three days of the festival, with both speakers and topics.
The head speaker this year was the famous producer Steve Lillywhite and the famous Swedish producer Lennart Östlund witch had worked together in Polar Studios when it was around in the 80’s.
This year there also more stages. For the first time, they experimented with a stage in the suburbs of Norrköping and in addition they also added a night stage for dance music that kept going until three in the morning. They also let two stages be totally free for the public and without any alcohol to attract a younger audience. Except for the stage in the suburbs, all the stages were within three minutes walking distance, and you can cross the whole area in under 20 minutes. For the first time, they also dedicated one stage to a bit harder music.
The artists showcased were also in many genres. Here you had everything from classical guitar to hip-hop and rock’n’roll. Some bigger names also appeared on the lineup like Cosmospeople and Mixer from Taiwan, Tribe Friday, 23 Till, and The Magnettes from Sweden, Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys from Lithuania and Gareth Dunlop from Ireland.
With around 1200 people and 500 delegates, the festival is the perfect middle-size showcase where you have the chance to network and see quite many artists in a relaxed environment. Future Echoes goes the extra length to bring in big names from the music industry and other large festivals and we have already seen several success stories emerge from the festival as business was really getting done.
We look forward to Future Echoes 2024 which will be 21 to 23 of March 2024.