Reeperbahn Festival have announced a partnership with Music Finland for the next year's edition of the festival. The Reeperbahn Festival is Germany’s largest club festival and is one of the most important meeting places for the music and digital industries in Europe. This is the first time the festival takes a focus on a specific country. Finland was an obvious choise for the festival: ”Finnish music is very interesting at the moment. There has been a lot of great Finnish bands at our festival and I am sure 'Spotlight on Finland' as a whole will make a great impact to the music professionals and the audience”, festival director Alexander Schultz says.

The timing for Reeperbahn Festival's "Spotlight on Finland" partnership could not be better. Finnish music industry is gearing up for the launch of the biggest Finnish music export project ever. The two-year initiative will bring a surge of Finnish music to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, aiming to increase the number of new openings, projects and contracts as well as the number of shows and performances of Finnish music in the market.

The goal of the project is to increase the exports and the exposure of Finnish music, and in the long term to create a sustainable base for the future of music export in this territory.

 “Finnish music is currently – more so than ever before – on a fast rise towards international recognition on a large scale. There are of course the renowned Finnish superstars, such as Sunrise Avenue or Nightwish, but at the same time there’s a big group of exciting new acts that are on the verge of an international breakthrough. This applies to all genres from pop to indie, electronic to urban, classical to jazz and so on”, says Tuomo Tähtinen, the director of Music Finland.

“For us the partnership with Reeperbahn means an opportunity to build collaborations with mutual benefits. A good collaboration is one where all involved parties see opportunities for future success. Music export is not about pushing your content to someone who is not interested about it, but rather about creating connections that born from genuine interest”, Tuomo Tähtinen says.

Reeperbahn Festival