News: Wide Days Success Sees Rise in Conference Delegates

Wide Days (13th till 15th) is over for another year, but there’s still time to bask in its success. This year’s conference attracted 350 registered delegates, up 25% on 2022 from 10 countries and all the UK nations. They hosted delegations from Mexico and Canada, showcased a record number of acts over the three days and invited the the festivals M For Montreal and FOCUS Wales to each guest programme a venue; further building on their international scope and highlighting new opportunities for sustaining artists and the music business.

The showcase programme (Thursday 13th April) kicked off with music from the acts on this year’s talent development programme hosted in partnership with PRS Foundation. On Friday delegates and fans were treated to the sounds of the New From Scotland showcase, which included Midnight Ambulance, who will be presented by Wide Days at FOCUS Wales 2023, along with Swiss Portrait who performed in 2022. Finally, the Saturday night line-up was dedicated to the Festival Takeover showcases from M For Montreal and FOCUS Wales, whose artists included Polaris prize nominee Laurence-Anne and a Welsh-language rapper Sage Todz.

The Local Heroes strand saw Regular Music’s Moira McKenzie interviewed by veteran manager Bruce Findlay. While founder of legendary indie label, Fierce Panda, Simon Williams, was in-conversation with Wide Days founder Olaf Furniss.

This year marked the first time the popular 15 Minutes of Knowledge strand was live-streamed, so no worries if you missed it. It offered a diverse range of insights, including presentations about generating energy from clubbers’ body heat (wow), a funding guide to music mobility in Europe and a session on tackling performance anxiety hosted by the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine. These sessions can be viewed here.

Plus, a dedicated strand hosted by the charity Attitude Is Everything featured talks about inclusive design, making festivals accessible and a study into neurodiversity carried out by the Association for Electronic Music. And, not forgetting the partnership with the Department for Business and Trade that included a four-hour, online sync workshop hosted two weeks before the convention by music supervisor, Paty Carrera, as well as a dedicated North American meeting strand and panels on Mexico and Canada.