MENT Ljubljana

Established in 2015, MENT Ljubljana is an international music showcase festival taking place at various Ljubljana venues. Produced by Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture in collaboration with SIGIC, Slovene Music Information Centre and the Multipraktik collective, MENT is comprised of a series of music acts, a conference programme dealing with the intricacies of music businesses and additional events such as workshops on new art and media technologies.

Yet, MENT is also a year-long project meant to help Slovenian musicians and music professionals with promotion and networking, and is for example enlisting and accompanying them to other showcase festivals.

The agenda

MENT was set up foremost to be a platform for improving the ways in which Slovenian music scene relates with the international music businesses circuit. As such, it is working to equip those active in this field in Slovenia with the necessary understanding and skills for optimally crafting their careers and offering them various networking opportunities. This is served not only at the time of the festival, but through a year-long set of activities as well. An example of this is a workshops series co-organized with SIGIC, which has featured foreign mentors like Sanjin Đukić (Los Angeles Agency, HR), Login Kočiški (Password Agency, MK) and Hannes Tschürtz (INK Music, AT).

Last but not least, MENT is presenting exceptional, if slightly less recognised musicians from around Europe, and occasionally elsewhere as well, to Slovenian audiences.

Locations

The locations of the festival happenings are the Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture and its adjacent hotel, the clubs in Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone (Klub Menza pri koritu, Klub Channel Zero, Gala Hala, Klub Gromka), the Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, the cafeteria of Slovene Ethnographic Museum and, for the purposes of film screenings, also the Kinodvor Cinema.

MENT Ljubljana 2015 /aftermovie/ by MENT Ljubljana on YouTube

Music programme

The showcase usually features about 50 musicians and bends invited from all over Europe, with a somewhat special bias made on the Balkans and the Baltic and some additional guests coming from the USA.

A significant portion of the acts are local artists of a varies musical persuasions, from big bands and rock acts to techno producers. Some of them are Jardier, Your Gay Thoughts, Werefox, The Canyon Observer, Koala Voice, Nina Bulatovix, It's Everyone Else, Moveknowledgement, ŠKM Banda and Ludovik Material.

Coming from abroad are Miki Solus (HR), Repetitor (RS), Lord Raja (USA), Manu Delago Handmade (AT), Elektro Guzzi (AT), Erotic Market (FR), Anton Maskeliade (RU), Lovely Quinces (HR) and Shigeto (US). These relatively fresh acts are joined by established head-liners like Monolake (DE).

Conference programme

The conference events mostly take the form of either lectures or speaker panels, with the topics varying from discussing festival strategies, analysing business models and explaining digital marketing, to introducing less known music scenes (such as the Belarus one) and organizing listening sessions where an elected cast comments on anonymous tracks. The 2016 edition has a special focus on the Balkans region and among other things features a networking session with that specific market in mind.

Some of the keynote speakers and guests whom MENT has invited are Scott Cohen (The Orchard, UK), Chris Eckman (GlitterBeat Records, SI/US), Helen Sildna (Tallinn Music Week, EE), Ruud Berends (Eurosonic Noorderslag, NL), John Robb (LouderThanWar, UK), Michal Kaščák (Pohoda, SK), Ivan Novak (Laibach, SI), Andrej Sevšek (Punk Rock Holiday, SI), Dan Panaitescu (Sziget, HU), Martin Elbourne (Glastonbury Festival, UK) and Jeff Owens (Ghostly International, US).

International activities

In a way acting as a Slovenian music export agency, MENT has been crucial in enlisting Slovenian performers to international festivals and showcase events such as Tallinn Music Week, INmusic Festival, Reeperbahn Festival, Eurosonic Noorderslag, Waves Vienna & Bratislava ( in collaboration with the Slovenian Culture and Information Centre, Vienna (SKICA)), Liverpool Sound City and Taksirat Festival. In 2015, twelve acts carried out 31 performances at these events via MENT, which also sent its own delegations

MENT is partaking in the European Talent Exchange Programme (ETEP), a network of ninety European festivals that encourages the flow of new talent among European festivals.

External links

MENT Ljubljana

Contents

The agenda

Locations

Music programme

Conference programme

International activities

See also

External links

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