CityCo, Manchester City Centre BID and Manchester Accommodation BID are founding sponsors of Beyond the Music: a new global music conference and festival in Manchester city centre, 11-14 October 2023.
Today, Beyond The Music – the first ever change-making global music conference and festival confirms the first next generation talent for its first ever edition in Manchester, UK on 11th – 14th October 2023.
Taking place at independent music venues across the iconic Northern Quarter in Manchester, the Beyond The Music: Discovered programme is a statement of intent. Striving to make change within the industry, the festival has partnered with some of the most influential curators – including NQ Legacy, SXSW and more – in the UK and beyond to deliver a series of carefully curated showcases will shine a light on a diverse and inclusive range of artists who previously may not have had the opportunity to reach new audiences or the industry professionals who could help to grow and enhance their careers.
The programme offers the opportunity for new artists and bands to submit their music to a panel of music industry experts, led by A&R executive Caroline Elleray of Second Songs Publishing, for the chance to perform at one of the festival’s anchor music venues; encouraging music discovery through live performance. Submissions are open now.
Announced today, the first genre-spanning names for Beyond The Music: Discovered 2023 include Manchester’s own rising singer-songwriter [ K S R ], a singer-songwriter praised by Complex, Notion and Red Bull for his soulful vocals and futuristic soundscapes; and Slovenian superstar in the making July Jones, whose combination of edgy electro pop, forward-thinking production and unfiltered lyrics about relationships, queerness and mental health have seen her championed by BBC Introducing and gracing the cover of Gay Times.
Elsewhere, electro-punk collective Tokky Horror have made a name for themselves with their thrash riffs that juxtapose hyperactive old school jungle breakbeats, and squelching 303 baselines against the dual attack of vocalists Mollie Rush and Ava Akira; while Scottish glam-goths Walt Disco’s blend of emotionally resonant grandiose and a hint of the obscure has seen them tipped by everyone from NME, Rough Trade and METAL Magazine for their convention-defying reinvention of pop.
In addition to Discovered, the festival has also announced the ‘Kick Like A Girl’ showcase at Night & Day Cafe. The stage will host an all female line up carefully curated by Manchester’s own Loose Articles, who helped to launch Beyond The Music with a performance at the Beyond The Music showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas earlier this year.
Speaking about the opportunity to showcase diverse talent at Beyond The Music, Loose Articles say: “As a band we aim to showcase female identifying and non-binary talent as much as possible. Recent news articles have stated that women are seen as too much of a “risk” for headline festival slots, with statistics showing if you count the total number of performers on stage during headline slots, only one in 10 (11%) are women and even less (2% are non-binary people).
We need to change the attitudes towards female identifying and non-binary musicians and this starts with support from conferences such as Beyond The Music who have given us a platform to do this. We aim to showcase as many talented musicians as we can to highlight this issue in the hope that this will start to effect change in the way festivals are booked.”
Beyond The Music is the first festival and conference to have an integrated decision-making structure to create actions, and exist as more than just a talking shop. Its Co-Operative Membership programme will allow everyone from musicians, producers, managers, record labels, and trade bodies, through to delegates and gig lovers to have their say in the future of the global industry. By participating in Beyond the Music, everyone will have a stake and a say.
Early bird tickets for the first edition of Beyond The Music are available now, at an exclusive price for a limited time at £30 per day / £90 for 3 days for festival goers, and £200 for conference & festival delegate passes. Tickets are available here.
The festival has also launched a Pay It Forward system in order to maximise accessibility for those who are hoping to advance their career within the music industry, but may not be able to afford the full ticket price. Applications for PIF tickets are open here.
