More than a festival, the “South Music”, which will take place on June 15th and 16th, in Faro, will assert itself as the first “regional event, promoting and attempting to launch musical projects”, nationally and even internationally.
“South Music”, a “unique” project in Portugal, is an initiative of the Municipality of Faro, Theater of Figures and Faro 2027, which will bring together, for two days, in the Algarve capital, the professional sector of Portuguese music.
"Agents, producers, programmers, specialized press, in other words, the entire professional sector in this area in Portugal is being invited to be present", said Paulo Santos, vice-president of the Chamber of Faro, at the presentation of the event.
Included in the application project of Faro the European Capital of Culture (Faro 2027), South Music will make known «the bands and musicians that exist, who are working in the Algarve and who need all our support to develop their career», stressed, in turn, Rogério Bacalhau, president of the City Council of Faro.
The Farense mayor also highlighted that, as has been highlighted in relation to the candidacy for European Capital of Culture, South Music will be «not only for the municipality of Faro, but for the whole Algarve region».
With the pandemic, there began to be a growing creation of music where, at a certain moment, «there was an explosion of musical projects in the Algarve».
It was at that time that, said Paulo Santos, the municipality of Faro thought: "why not make an event directed, more than for the public, for the professional music sector?".
The idea was shared with several professionals in the sector and advanced, giving way to South Music, which has Algarve musicians as ambassadors for the project: Dino D'Santiago, Nuno Guerreiro, Júlio Resende, Zé Eduardo and Viviane.
The artist, former vocalist of Entre Aspas and now with a successful solo career, considers this «a very ambitious project» and revealed that she was «very happy» when she was contacted to be an ambassador.
“I really thought it made perfect sense [to be an ambassador] and it's very good for the Algarve to be the first region to have a project of this kind, to support musicians. In fact, this will provide all musicians with an incredible experience».
Participants in the event «will be able to benefit from knowledge that, otherwise, would be much more difficult to get there», said the singer, referring to the fact that this project brings «the Lisbon industry to the Algarve».
South Music had open applications for participation between the 16th and 30th of April, with 121 musical projects submitted, totaling 294 registered musicians.
«Not only the group was registered, but also each musician, because they may already have several projects and have more in the future», framed the vice-president of the Chamber of Faro.
In total, 178 composers, 167 instrumentalists, 126 singers, 97 authors, 48 producers, 20 technicians, 13 agents, 11 promoters, eight were registered. bookers and 24 other participants.
The 121 musical projects that applied «represent 13 municipalities in the Algarve, from the most diverse musical genres and ages», revealed Paulo Santos. Rock (37 projects), alternative music (36), pop (31), acoustic music (23) and hip hop (23) were the most represented styles.
The applications received still had to comply with the requirements stipulated in the regulation, such as the presentation of original compositions and the place of birth or residence in the Algarve.
All these bands and musicians will later be included in a platform for the promotion of music in the Algarve, this being «the main objective and the one we want to leave for the region in the future», reinforced Paulo Santos.
The projects selected by the judges will go through a process of qualification and formation, and they will be able to take advantage of several workshops from various areas, which will take place between the end of May and the beginning of June.
As for the judges who will evaluate the musicians in the competition, the panel will be composed by journalists Inês Meneses and Rui Miguel Abreu, by Fernando Alvim, radio animator, and by Sandra Faria, promoter, agent, manager and president of the Association of Show Promoters (APEFE).
The jury also includes Renato Júnior, composer, musician and producer, Paulo Silva, programmer of Festival Med and Cineteatro Louletano, Nuno Silva, president of AMAEI, and Gil Silva, director of Teatro das Figuras.
During the event, there will be s, during which the selected bands will have the opportunity to act before the music industry professionals present in the initiative.
Gil Silva, director of Teatro das Figuras, also presented a cycle of five conferences, which will be part of South Music, spread over two days, aimed mainly at professionals from the music industry who participate in the event. For these conferences, prior registration is required.
In the first panel, entitled “Painel dos Embaixadores”, Júlio Ferreira, Ricardo Coelho, Dino D'Santiago, Júlio Resende, Viviane, Nuno Guerreiro and Zé Eduardo will give their testimony about the difficulty of being a musician outside of large urban centers and about the difficulty of being able to grow in the musical world in Portugal. All these musicians have links to the Algarve and managed to assert themselves nationally and, some, internationally.
The “Painel das Editoras” will have as guests representatives of multinational and independent publishers, such as Paula Homem, Francisco Vasconcelos, José Gomes and Nuno Saraiva, and is intended to outline scenarios about the future of publishing.
There will also be a conference moderated by Tozé Brito, entitled “Painel Direito de Autores e Conexos”, where representatives of the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA), Audiogest and musician Nuno Rodrigues, from Glockenwise, will talk about the changes in the perception of music and on the replacement of traditional forms of revenue by new existing digital platforms.
“The Role of the Musical Press” will also be the topic of discussion in one of the panels. Inês Meneses, Vitor Belanciano and Júlio Ferreira (among other guests) will share reflections on the music press and how it can gain greater expression in Portugal and contribute to the consolidation of musicians and bands.
The last panel of the event will be dedicated to evaluating the creation of music in Portugal, contrasting it with the market that exists to host it. This panel will close the two days of conferences, with a conversation between Luís Ferreira, Vasco Sacramento, João Carvalho, Sandra Faria, Ricardo Bramão and Michal Zolman.
During the two days, among the various initiatives, there will still be «a kind of speed dating», where «the musicians will be available to the conference participants», stressed Paulo Santos.
In addition to the initiative's core objectives, the Faro2027 will present the South Music Generation Cápsula initiative, which will seek to reach young creatives aged 14 to 18, through a curation process that will allow the launching of a new generation of musicians from Faro and from the Algarve, curated by Filipe Cabeçadas and Ana Tereza.
In this context, four bands will be selected which, in parallel, will be presented on a stage located at Associação ArQuente.
The event will be broadcast online through the digital platforms from South Music, but also from a platform of Gaming. «There may be people, from the professional music sector, who will be able to follow the entire event in streaming, but we also couldn't leave out the public that wants to see the event live», stressed Paulo Santos.
At the end of South Music's presentation to the press, it was clear that «this is not a project that runs out this year. It will be able to continue» in the future.
Furthermore, if, after the event, there are projects that want to register on the platform, it “will be open and receptive to receive more. From there, we will be able to launch them and promote them nationally or internationally».
South Music has as partners the Association of Show Promoters (APEFE), Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA), GDA, Audiogest, AMAEI, Aporfest and AEAPP – Associação Espectáculo.
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