From Thursday 22 to Friday 23 September 2022, the Reeperbahn Festival will once again offer a wide range of exciting events for international professional visitors. 350 speakers and 130 well-selected sessions, talks, networking and interviews on twelve thematic tracks will provide insights into the current challenges and topics of live entertainment, recorded music, the synch business, marketing, media, and journalism, among others. Another focus is on social and political issues, such as the effects of the war in Ukraine and the climate crisis. The 350 speakers include Canadian producer and musician Daniel Lanois (U2, Neil Young), Ukrainian rapper and ANCHOR 2019 winner Alyona Alyona, Gudrun Schweppe (Head of Music, YouTube Germany), the political activist collective Pussy Riot, Mando Diao head Björn Dixgård and German concert promoter legend Karsten Jahnke.  

This year’s Reeperbahn Festival will kick off with a conversation between pianist Igor Levit (DEU) and Hamburg’s Senator for Culture and Media, Dr. Carsten Brosda (DEU). The two will discuss what impact two years of the pandemic and also the Ukraine war have had on the music scene. They’ll also be asking how political the ‘sound of these special times’ is, can be and must be.   

The music sync rights business has been gaining ground for years. And so our panel discussion 12 Months In Sync with Harley Backmann Hawksley (GBR) (Music Supervisor theodore), Jenn Egan (GBR) (Music Supervisor Eyline Music), Paul Moore (GBR) (Music Rights & Reporting Manager BBC), Catherine Wharton (USA) (Director Creative Music Strategy Paramount) and Gemma Farrington (GBR) (Sync Manager Sentric Music Group) will be looking at the latest trends and key requirements in this market.    

One of the essential tools in music marketing has become the short video format. Our panel event It’s Getting Reel In Here! The Power Of Short Videos has Mathilde Burnecki (DEU) (Strategic Partner Instagram), Michael Kümmerle (DEU) (Head of Music Operations TikTok Germany) and Gudrun Schweppe (DEU) (Head of Music YouTube D/A/CH) debating what this new format means for creators, labels and agencies.    

Discussing what destinguishes contemporary classical music and how it can be performed live are Elina Hage (DEU) (CEP Artifier Management), Konstantin Udert (DEU) (Detect Classical Festival) and Steven Walter (DEU) (Beethovenfest Bonn) in the Not Quite Classical panel event.   

A keynote address by Ukrainian rapper and ANCHOR 2019 winner Alyona Alyona, moderated by Steve Blame, will give the audience a first-hand account of the impact the Ukraine war has had not only on her personal life, but on the whole cultural life and identity of the country.  

  

A run-down of the full Sessions line-up is here.