EFN Newsletter June 2025 #31
- EFN editor
- Jun 11
- 8 min read
WELCOME AND SUMMARY
Welcome to the new edition of this communication and outreach initiative of the EFN. Feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues. Receiving this newsletter is open to anyone for free, here. Read to the end to find out how to submit content for future editions.
This is what you'll find below:
🔹News from EFN:
▫️ EFN will be present at the 13th European Forum on Music, 'Celebrating Musical Diversity" (Brussels 11-12);
▫️ Reminders of the Annual Conference and the European Folk Day;
🔹News from our members:
▫️ Play it! by Oliver Djordjevic, World Music Association of Serbia;
▫️ 17th edition of Metno 2025 – Festival of Modern and Traditional Music, by Folklorni ansambl Tempet;
▫️ Ethno Wallonia-Brussels – Folk Music Camp Opportunity, by Laura Nilges, Assistante projets Culture Crew & Ethno
🔸Our next featured member is Åke Lundström, from Sweden
🔹Our next featured artist is the Breton singer Érik Marchand
✍️ Do you want to participate? At the end of the newsletter you will find how you can contribute to future editions, whether you are an EFN member or not.
And of course EFN is always looking for new members and at the end of this newsletter there is a note about how and why to join, with links to the membership pages of the website and the application form.
Thanks for your attention, have a fruitful reading and, please, forward this to any person who could be interested! |
News from EFN |
🔸Meet us at the European Forum on Music: 11-12 June, Brussels
Two members of the board, Steven Vanderaspoilden and Araceli Tzigane, and Administrator Nod Knowles, will attend this forum. According to the website, "during this EFM we will discuss the importance of protecting and promoting musical and cultural diversity and how it can be enshrined in EU policies for culture making use of music’s great potential as a driver for change also in light of the increasing emphasis on competitiveness in EU policies."
All the details about the Forum are available here.
🔸REMINDER: 2025 EFN Conference - Registration is now open - for EFN members and also non members -
Please note: The special conference hotel discount rate is available until 30 May.
Manresa – the beautiful historic city in the heart of Catalonia, home to the immersive Fira Mediterrania, now in its 28th year – is the host for the 6th annual European Folk Network Conference on 10 & 11 October 2025.
For the 2025 Conference EFN and Fira Manresa offer a unique opportunity to explore the many showcase concerts whilst meeting and sharing ideas with a host of other people and organisations active in the folk arts from across Europe.The conference programme, to be announced shortly, will concentrate on issues of direct relevance to the folk arts sector, alongside discussion groups on EFN's active plans and interests shared by and with EFN members.
Conference registration fees cover:
All conference sessions over two full days
Barcelona airport pick-ups and return transfers
Discount rates for bookings at the four star Hotel Don Cándido in Terrassa
Daily transport from Terrassa to Manresa
Access to Fira Mediterrania showcase events
Delegate lunch in the splendid Kursaal Theatre
Welcome reception hosted by wine producers D.O. Pla de Bages
Where to stay:
Accommodation is limited in Manresa so the official (four star) Conference hotel is in Terrassa - 25 minutes away - and there will be free transport every day for delegates to and from the Conference venue in Manresa. If you want to book the Conference hotel you will receive the discount code for the hotel immediately after you register for the Conference. Places are limited so please book the hotel asap.
Travel: Fira Mediterrania will provide free pick-up and return transport for delegates to and from Barcelona airport. There are also train and bus services to Manresa from Barcelona and other Spanish cities.
These are the Conference registration options:
EFN Members €95
Non members of EFN €125
Students €50
Register for the Conference HERE
🔸European Folk Day 2025
Save The Date also for the European Folk Day – 23 September! It’s your chance to participate in the Folk Day – on the Day itself or in the days surrounding it.
Register your event in the map and the database: www.europeanfolkday.eu/participate/
We also want to give a special nod to the Make Music Day UK team, who sent us their open call. They also have their call open, here. It is an invitation to celebrate the Summer Solstice, in the frame of the international Day of Music: 21st of June.
News from the members
🔹Play it!
By Oliver Djordjevic, World Music Association of Serbia
Play it! – Strengthening cooperation in music industry to make a change is a one-year project by World Music Association of Serbia, Music Information Centre of Serbia and NGO “Ring Ring”, recently launched to boost Serbia’s music industry. It fosters inclusive growth by linking stakeholders, promoting marginalized groups, and encouraging innovative, participatory approaches. The Play It! online platform strengthens national and international networking, while MICS becomes a hub for inclusive practices and policy improvement. A project website will be created soon. The project is supported by UNESCO International Cultural Diversity Fund.
🔹17th edition of Metno 2025 – Festival of Modern and Traditional Music
By Folklorni ansambl Tempet
Folklore Ensemble Tempet is proud to announce the 17th edition of Metno 2025 – Festival of Modern and Traditional Music – taking place on June 21st and 22nd in the picturesque town of Makarska on the Adriatic coast. As the longest-running world music festival in Croatia, Metno has been organized entirely by the ensemble’s volunteers for 17 years. The festival is a unique blend of summer relaxation and the vibrant sounds of traditional music from around the world. Join us for two unforgettable days of music, dance, and cultural exchange by the sea in the heart of Dalmatia.
For more information: FB - Instagram Metno
🔹Ethno Wallonia-Brussels – Folk Music Camp Opportunity
By Laura Nilges, Assistante projets Culture Crew & Ethno
Ethno Wallonia-Brussels is a unique music camp taking place in Belgium from August 16th to 25th. Each year, we welcome up to 18 young musicians from around the world to share traditional music and exchange cultural heritage. Over five days of rehearsal, the participants are guided by two artistic mentors — Belgian flutist Josefien Vercruysse and British accordionist Dave Gray — and prepare for three days of performances at renowned Belgian folk festivals: Les Polysons, Hide and Seek, and Les Sentiers de Sart-Risbart.
We still have a few spots available and would be delighted to welcome musicians recommended by your network. While the camp usually involves a participation fee, we may be able to offer one or two scholarships to cover full costs for selected participants.
You’ll find our presentation here. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or would like to schedule a call to discuss the project further. Deadline for candidates: 15th June.
Featured Member: Åke Lundström
Åke presents himself nowadays with these words: I’m a film producer for feature films and TV but I’m also the head of the organisation Americana music Sweden and the song writing camp Tiveden Americana.
When he became a member in 2019, this is how he introduced himself:
"I work with two showcase festivals in Sweden. I'm the CEO of Live at heart, the biggest festival for all genres in Sweden with 200 bands at 20 stages in Örebro. It is also a film and a festival for start up companies.
I also started the Nordic Folk Alliance in Gothenburg in cooperation with Folk Alliance International. I have also been the nordic representative for Folk Alliance International."
The picture is from his Facebook profile.
About the question on what you can give to the European Folk Network as a member, his answer was "The festivals that I work with creates possibilities for musicians and music business to network and makes the music reach all over the world."
Featured Artist: Érik Marchand
By Araceli Tzigane
The first time I heard Érik Marchand was on an album called Dor, with the Romanian band Taraf de Caransebeș, from 1998. I bought the CD. I'm listening to it again now, and it still strikes me as a fascinating and natural combination. At the time, I never imagined for a second that one day I would meet that man, let alone end up writing about him in this wonderful newsletter. That’s life. I even have a photo with him here. Let’s recap some facts about him.
Érik Marchand is an active artist and his biography can be found quite easily. I will bring only a few essential facts.
On World Music Central, his discography is reviewed up to 2013 and it is explained that "Erik Marchand was born in 1955. He’s a well known Breton vocalist and treujenn-gaol (Breton clarinet) performer. Even though he was born in Paris, his family was of Breton origin, hailing from Quelneuc, Brittany.
Erik was a member of the highly influential Breton band Gwerz and also formed the Erik Marchand Quartet, an ensemble featuring himself and Jacky Molard, two of the most famous artists in Breton traditional music, and by Costica Olan and Viorel Tajkuna, two of the biggest virtuosos of Gypsy music from Romania and Serbia." Olan and Tajkuna contributed to the album, and you can listen to one of its songs just below.
This is the album I mentioned at the beginning, Dor, with Érik Marchand and the Taraf de Caransebeş. At the time, I had barely heard any Breton music and very little Romanian music, so I didn’t even perceive it as a mix. I mean, I knew it was, but my ears and my mind heard a coherent and beautiful whole. In this piece, Érik’s voice doesn’t come in until a bit later, but it’s one of my favorites.
With Taraf de Caransebeş, Marchand had made a previous album, in 1993: Sag An Tan Ell.
Beyond performance, Marchand has been dedicated to education and the transmission of modal music traditions. In 2005, he founded the Kreiz Breizh Akademi, an academy aimed at training musicians in the modal music of Brittany and beyond, fostering cross-cultural musical dialogues. For more information about that, check this.
I’ve chosen this other video because it’s the one with the most views on YouTube featuring Érik. It also showcases his ability to blend with other musical styles — in this case, performing alongside two other singers from the Breton tradition (Yann-Fañch Kemener and Éric Menneteau, two other wonderful artists) and a beatbox artist (Christophe Le Menn). The atmosphere among the audience is spectacular. It depicts a fest-noz, a traditional Breton night festival centered around collective dancing and live music. The communal style of dancing is characteristic of fest-noz events, which are integral to Breton cultural heritage. Fest-noz gatherings were inscribed in 2012 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS NEWSLETTER
Are you already a member? Then, remember that you can submit contents for this monthly newsletter. Email your content to efneditors@gmail.com, for these sections:
· News from EFN Members. Brief announcements – of around 100 words and a link.
· Featured artist. - A profile with around 200 words, an embedded video and one link. Members are invited to submit profiles, considering solo and ensemble living or not living artists who have achieved lifelong artistic and technical quality or historical significance in the field of folk art from or developed in or settled in Europe. If you have any artists in mind that you'd like to feature, please ask in advance, just to be sure there is no other member already doing it.
And whether you are a member or not, you can participate in this section:
· Special sections. For instance, an interview with someone from an institution that is not a member or a thematic article by a guest writer or anything that can appear and be considered as interesting. This section can also host guest writers that are not members.
If you'd like to share any content, contact us in advance to schedule it by emailing efneditors@gmail.com
Of course, self promotional articles lacking interest won't be accepted. In case of doubt, the EFN board will be consulted and will decide.
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