The tenth edition of the new music and city culture festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW), taking place from 2nd to 8th April in Tallinn, Estonia, has announced the first batch of this year’s line-up. From today single concert tickets are on sale next to the festival passes. TMW 2018 Festival + Conference Pass is available for €175€ until 1st February and Festival Pass for €60 at the TMW online store. TMW 2018 is presented by Telia Estonia.
The core of the weeklong TMW anniversary festival is the Creative Impact conference at Tallinn Creative Hub and music showcases across multiple venues in the city on three nights by 250 artists from all around the world. By now 67 acts from 18 countries have been confirmed in the line-up.
“In 2009, at the first ever festival we had exactly the same number – 67 artists altogether,” says Raimond Põldmaa, head of music programme of TMW. “This will be the 10th edition and so much has changed compared to the very first festival, where I as a high-school student saw my favourite Finnish band Disco Ensemble in Club Hollywood. They were one of the two foreign artists in the programme. Today we are fortunate to produce an international programme and showcase wonderful new talent from 30 different countries.”
The music programme from Thursday, 5th April to Saturday, 7th April offers a selection from experimental future sounds to chart pop, from jazz to metal, and from folk to classical music. Among the international artists is the joint project by the Finnish legends Ismo Alanko and Kimmo Pohjonen with their vocal experimentation and sonic adventures. The Yugoslavian-rooted DIY rapper, singer and songwriter GNUČČI and the glitter-punk riot grrrl band The Magnettes will join the festival from Sweden. From Denmark the soul band D/troit – a favourite of BBC´s Craig Charles – and the futuristic noise rock band ZRN will play in Tallinn, from Austria the rising star of juke and footwork, DJ Franjazzco, from Canada jazz, electro and soul exploring emcee Arlo Maverick, and from New York the architects of the “third wave ska” The Toasters will complete the line-up.
The 19-year-old Suzi Wu from North London will treat Tallinn to her “cocktail of Ian Dury, Happy Mondays and Patti Smith”. Romanian Karpov Not Kasparov will play their energetic live set based on the rules and strategies of chess. Russian artist Alexei Taruts will play with performativity and spectator perception, and the Icelandic instrumental trio Malneirophrenia will exhibit the mixture of classical and metal influences, with references to horror jazz.
27 Estonian artists have been confirmed by now – from household names to tomorrow’s stars. Among others, there will be performances by our esteemed folk stars Trad.Attack! and Mari Kalkun, the internationally acclaimed drum’n’bass unit Indivision as well as the “Blues Man of the Year 2017” of UK’s Severn FM Andres Roots with drummer Anneli Kadak, the shoegaze band Holy Motors – soon to release a debut album under the US label Wharf Cat, and the TMW artist prize winner of 2016 I Wear* Experiment.
The Estonian Radio Children’s Choir will perform with Eeva Talsi, the lead singer of the popular bluegrass band Curly Strings. Featured in the line-up are also Avarus Trio, masters of delicate interplay of composed and improvised music, deep house legends Ajukaja & Andrevski and Neuronphase as well as an experimental death metal squad Neoandertals. Brave new sounds and visions will be represented by sensual and surreal lifehacker Florian Wahl, the girl rap duo HOAX, and the mix of trap and pop sounds by KKPalmy and Mick Moon.
TMW 2018 is curated by a wide range of collaborators, including some new showcases and venues. The dark music festival Beats From The Vault displays the selection of artists from industrial to drone, Berlin XJAZZ Festival presents their line-up of Estonian and international jazz artists, Blues Estonia agency offers an assortment of blues and rock combos, Estonian Choral Association offers an assortment of our finest choirs, Sveta bar is the venue for juke and footwork showcase Booty Powder whilst the legendary KuKu Art Club hosts the two-day art pop spectacle CryptoMarket.
The traditional TMW co-organizers on board are Raadio 2, Viljandi Folk, Üle Heli Festival, Manka Boutique Pop Festival, World Clinic, Intsikurmu Festival, Weekend Festival, Live Nation Baltics, Estonian Funk Embassy, Russian Theatre, Fenno-Ugria, Damn.Loud Agency in cooperation with the Finnish Tuska festival as well as the Latvian Positivus festival with I Love You Records label. Two of the festival’s showcases will be presented by Telia.
All the announced TMW 2018 artists can be found here.
TMW 2018 music festival takes place from 5th to 7th April. The remaining artists of the music festival along with the venues, special events and free City Stage concerts will be announced during February. The complete programme of TMW 2018 and the application of My TMW will be published online during January and February.
The core of the TMW jubilee festival taking place from 2nd to 8th April 2018 will be music festival by nearly 250 artists from different genres from all over the world and the entrepreneurial conference focusing on the impact of creativity that includes cross-sector discussions on future skills, design thinking, future cities, gender equality and sustainable development next to music industry topics.
The TMW city festival offers free city stage concerts, public discussions TMW Talks, a selection of the nicest eateries as TMW Tastes, a specially curated arts programme, Design Market and various activities in the public space.
TMW 2018 is presented by Telia. TMW 2018 partners are the Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Enterprise and Nordic Hotel Forum. Festival’s website is created by Velvet and Festivality, visual identity by AKU.
TMW 2018 Single Tickets are on sale from today for €10-20 at Piletilevi.
TMW 2018 Conference + Festival Pass for €175 (from 1st February €250), Festival Pass for €60 from 11th February €70) and Priority Pass for €150 are available in the web store.
Conference + Festival Pass gives access to the music festival, TMW conference and delegates’ bars as well as to the database of registered participants.
Festival Pass grants access to all concerts and includes special offers to other festival parts.
Priority Pass grants priority access to all TMW music festival events, including the opening concert and to the delegates’ bars as well as personalised programme recommendations.
All TMW 2018 passes offer discounts in the TMW Tastes participating restaurants and special offers of other festival parts. Clients of Telia receive additional benefits*.
*From January 2018 clients of Telia can buy up to 2 TMW Priority Passes with a special discount code, up to 2 festival passes and up to 2 joint passes of the conference and festival. Telia clients can also buy discounted single tickets. The 20% discount applies to pre-bought tickets.