MIAF partners with Reeperbahn Festival on African music B2B event

The B2B event, titled Reeperbahn Festival International Pan-Africa, will take place from 31 May to 3 June and feature networking, panel discussions, keynote addresses, insightful digital company visits, matchmaking sessions and a hybrid showcase experience with European and African artists. Additionally, a songwriting camp organised by ROBA Music Publishing will connect authors, producers and artists from both continents a week before the event.

The MIAF will undertake a curatorial role in the programme, which will be presented digitally to the public. Depending on the latest pandemic restrictions, the event will also include in-person events with delegates who will be invited to attend the sessions in Hamburg, Germany.

Reeperbahn Festival International Pan-Africa is a continuation of a reciprocal partnership between the MIAF and Reeperbahn Festival, which saw the German organisation participating at the MIAF’s ACCES music conference in Accra, Ghana, in 2019. Reeperbahn Festival brought three acts and a 30-strong European delegation to the Ghanaian capital, which dedicated itself to learn more about the local music market and create contacts with music professionals from across the African continent. In addition, Reeperbahn Festival curated two panel discussions titled Navigating the Recording and Distribution Industries in a Changing Environment and Fostering Collaboration Between the African and European Music Markets.

The MIAF’s partnership with the festival is broadly based on facilitating sustainable business engagements and exchange between European and African music businesses and professionals, as well as the provision of performance opportunities to musicians in both territories. Reeperbahn Festival will seek to continue these ideals in order to strengthen collaborations between the two markets.

“Music is strongly influenced by the process of digitisation in any form,” Reeperbahn Festival conference director Detlef Schwarte said in 2019. “However, the importance of genuine personal encounters on eye-level and the establishment of reliable artistic collaborations and economic networks does not fade into the background, but becomes more important. We are therefore very pleased to have found in ACCES a partner that reflects Reeperbahn Festival as a European platform and stands for a comprehensive approach throughout Africa.”

The full Reeperbahn Festival International Pan-Africa programme will be announced soon. All information about participation as an EU delegate and the public B2B programme on the Reeperbahn Festival Conference Platform is available here.