Spike – The Bulgarian Music Showcase is scheduled to take place in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria between May 26-28, 2022. Bulgaria’s most historic town will welcome music business delegates from over twelve countries, including the USA and Canada. Their expertise will cover every part of the music industry, including artist booking and management; publishing, royalties, and sync licensing; digital technology workshops; and equality and diversity in the music industry.
Formerly known as the Sofia International Music Conference (SIMC), Spike is Bulgaria’s first showcase and conference festival. We manage to get a hold of founder Boyan Robert Pinter while he was visiting different venues for the festival.
“The festival’s primary goal is to create learning and networking opportunities for Bulgarian artists and professionals and to introduce international delegates to Bulgaria’s music scene. This will be done in a spirit of diversity and inclusivity. We also hope to be part of the big European showcase circuit and this will be an annual stop for people to visit and find new music ” Says Boyan.
Boyan is an experienced concert arranger in Bulgaria with big shows with superstars done over the years. He has been very successful in getting bands into the whole region, not just Bulgaria. He is also an experienced speaker at many conferences and has over the years gotten out Bulgarian music into many outlets both in Europe and North America.
“We are very happy that our event will finally go live and in person. When we started SIMC, we received a lot of international support, which gave us the confidence to continue building this platform for local artists and music professionals. We are very grateful to the city of Plovdiv (EU Capital of Culture 2019) for being our gracious host and providing us with the perfect backdrop to our activities. Plovdiv is a great city, very laid back and has a big cultural scene. Our goal is to show many of these places and the good food and hospitality that is here.”
One of the things that are local is the popularity of harder music like metal and the festival will have a special thing around metal bands which make it unique and very interesting. Boyan wouldn’t reveal so much more right now but it will be at least a special metal scene inside the festival. Of course, it will be more genres as well.
Artist applications are currently open. The performance slots are limited and early applications are highly encouraged. The names of Spike’s rock star delegates and participating artists will be released in due course.
Spike will be part of a line of showcase festivals in former eastern Europe like MMB (Mastering The Music Business) Romania, Ment in Slovenia, and PIN Conference in Macedonia. What we have seen so far, they usually have great lineups and good speakers and an audience that is very keen on finding new stuff. Spike will be a real connecter for the whole region.
For more info and applications and the festival go to SpikeShowcase.com