The 6th Festival Awards Europe are done and dusted and at a star studded gala celebration at De Oosterport on January 14th at the start of this year’s EuroSonic festival and conference in Groningen, host Ben Challis welcomed guests and winners – and live performances from MØ (Denmark), Jack Garratt (UK) and Aurora Asknes (Sweden) – as well as a special surprise opening act, The Illegal Terms, made up of Ben on vocals, Michal Kaščák, organiser of the Pohoda Festival on drums, Open Air St Gallen’s organiser Christof Huber on guitar alongside Virtual Festivals’ Steve Jenner, and Das Fest booker and boss of Green Events Europe, Holger Jan Schmidt, on bass. The Illegal Terms gave barnstorming renditions of ‘Blittzkrieg Bop‘ and ‘I Fought The Law’. Sponsoring partners for the Awards included hosts Yourope, the European festivals association, EuroSonic and Eventbrite, Intelligent Venue Solutions, Plug Go and Snack Media. With over 1.2 milllion votes cast in the public categories this year, the Arctic Monkey’s won two awards for Headliner of the Year and Festival Anthem of the Year, collected on the night by the bands long time manager Geoff Barradale. Hungary’s Sziget won Best Major Festival, Glastonbury picked up the Best Lineup Award for their Metallica and Dolly Parton inspired summer bash, and Stromae picked up best newcomer. And the winners are……..Best Small European Festival – Festival Tuaron Nowa Muzyka (Poland)
Best Indoor Festival – I love Techno (Belgium)
The Green Operations Award – Roskilde Festival (Denmark)
Newcomer Of The Year – Stromae
Artist’s Favourite European Festival – Primavera Sound in Barcelona (Spain)
Best New European Festival – Down the Rabbit Hole (The Nederlands)
Festival Anthem of the Year – Arctic Monkeys – R U MineYES Group H&S Innovation Award – Mojo Concerts
Best Medium-Sized European Festival – Sea Dance Festival (Montenegro)
Promoter Of The Year – Live Nation (Belgium)
Best European Festival Line-Up – Glastonbury Festival (UK)
Best Headliner – Arctic Monkeys
Best Major European Festival – Sziget (Hungary)
Lifetime Achievement Award – Melvin Benn
Award For Excellence And Passion – Rikke Oxner
The European Border Breakers Awards (EBBAs), which give recognition to new European acts who have achieved cross-border chart success were also confirmed at a ceremony hosted by Jools Holland earlier in the day. The ten winners were announced in October, with three – Melanie De Biasio, MØ and Indila – performing live (as did previous winners, The Ting Tings), The other seven nominated acts were Klangkarussell, Milky Chance, Hozier, The Common Linnets, Todd Terje, Tove Lo and John Newman. Last year’s Dutch Eurovision entrants The Common Linnets were handed the Public Choice Award after an online vote, and Jungle were awarded the EBBA Best Festival Act prize.