8. July 2025
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The Country Music Week turns Digital

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

During the last years, October has been one of the big months for European country music fans: being already “traditional” in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands joined the Country Music Week in the recent past. Days packed with amazing country music concerts in an almost daily frequency. Not too surprisingly, there was no chance to set up live events. Luckily, the concert promoters more and more also exploring the world of online concerts – the Country Music Week becomes digital in 2020!

 

Country Music Week Digital – Joined Forces or Competition?

More or less in parallel, C2C Presents – the British promoter of the C2C Festivals in London, Glasgow and Dublin -, Semmel Concerts / Sound of Nashville Germany and Greenhouse Talent / Sound of Nashville Netherlands announced the Country Music Week Digital. Joined European forces? I was a bit confused about the announcement: while the Dutch and German posters are practically equivalent and just differ by the respective language used, the C2C Presents UK version does not only have an individual layout, it also features additional events, which feel to be UK exclusive (and are mainly featured by BBC2 and the two British country radio stations).

Most interesting has been the header to me, though. “A week of exclusive content specially created by teh artists for their UK and European fans”. You do get used to that for some British people, their country has never been a part of Europe – but I was surprised to see that the UK poster somehow gives the impression that it would also cover all European activities. Finally, it’s up to the promoters, how they do the share. the program looks promising.

 

Country Music Week Digital – The Program

Here are the two program announcements I quoted above, the British followed by the German one (as said, the Dutch one is equivalent).

 

I won’t go through all the program, but most of the days, the (German and Dutch) day seems to start with an Afternoon Tea presented by BMG and BBR, followed by shows of several artists. I feel Monday 19th October 2020 could be huge with a long list of female country artists in the Song Suffragettes section, including two of my British favorites, Twinnie and Vic Allen. Friday, 23rd October 2020 will feature a live show from the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville with Ashley McBryde and Lindsay Ell. There are quite a lot of female artists in general, but the program also features The Cadillac Three, Jimmy Allen or The Shires. Sunday closes with a set of seven artists.

The British program is majorly enriched with radio and social media events. Most Country Music week days, for example, start with interviews in the Full Country Breakfast Show on Chris Country Radio. There are also social media and radio takeovers. However, there are also live streaming sessions like the Thursday Facebook Live with Michael Ray. The additional events feature quite some highlights, including The Adelaides, Carly Pearce, Michael Ray, Lady A(ntebellum) or Brett Eldredge. I do understand that there is currently a higher potential – and competition – on the British market, but I see many factors why other country music markets like Germany or Scandinavia could become a leading role in European country within very few years. Thus, I feel that program split is a bit too short-sighted from a Nashville perspective.

 

Country Music Week Digital – My View

The final schedule and the conditions under which the concerts and interviews are broadcasted are not published yet, but of course I first of all appreciate the effort to set up this quite nicely lined up online festival. I feel the potential of the genre in different markets will be much more measurable than in previous years – there is no more excuse that the travel effort / expenses are too high to do a certain show, it is just right in your living room. Thus, it is not just a nice country distraction, but a real market proof, especially for Germany and the Netherlands. Let’s hope for high access rates.

 

Sound of Nashville on Flyctory.com

Here are all postings related to the Sound of Nashville concert series in Germany and the Netherlands:

 

Spotlight – Flyctory.com Interviews

Here are all postings of my interview section Spotlight:

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