Placement Report Eurosonic Noorderslag

Placement Report Eurosonic Noorderslag

Arts, Culture and Media University of Groningen Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) Trompsingel 21, Groningen Caroline van Wijngaarden, S3425444 0646303660 c.van.wijngaarden.1@student.rug.nl Supervising lecturer: Dr. C. Tonelli External Supervisor: Rene Sesil Tartan Groningen, 12/02/2020

Preface

Back in May of 2019 I had to start thinking of a way to fill in my

minor as a third year Arts, Culture and Media student. Even though I

liked the idea of doing a university minor, I thought it would be a good

learning opportunity to do an internship in the cultural field of Groningen. Shortly after, I saw a post by Eurosonic Noorderslag for internship vacancies for the period I wanted to follow an internship as well. Initially, I applied for a spot as a Marketing and Communication intern and ended up having a job interview with Jildau Stoelwinder (Head of Marketing), but due to my lack of experience in this field, I was rejected.

Not even a day later, Rene Tartan, a colleague of Jildau, sent me an e-mail with the proposition for a job interview regarding another internship, of which the spot was not filled yet. A day later, I had an interview with Rene about the internship in Ticketing and Customer Relations. I was a bit unsure of what to expect and Rene mentioned she had some difficulties trying to explain what the internship would entail, since this was the first year they were looking for an intern in the Ticketing department. Because ESNS is such a big event in the European music industry and I was determined I wanted to do an internship in the music industry, I did not want to let this opportunity slide and wanted to take on the challenge of working in a field I am slightly unexperienced in.

After speaking for a while about the tasks I would be executing, Rene asked me if I wanted to be on their team and of course, I said yes!

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Description Eurosonic Noorderslag 6

Description of Placement 8

Detailed Programme 8

Learning Outcomes 9

Execution and Evaluation 10

Conclusion 14

References 15

Appendix 15

Introduction

During the job interview I had with Rene, a lot of things became clear about the tasks of being an intern within the ticketing department of ESNS. The placement itself could be divided into two main sections, the preparatory work and the execution of these tasks as the conference and festival would come closer. The actual placement started in November and lasted until the end of January, but a lot of the preparatory work already started in September, so I started working there as well. I would like to note that this period (September-October) is not part of my placement period at ESNS, but some of the tasks I had to do already started in that period and that’s why I do want to shed some light on that period as well. Another thing I would like to address, is that as an intern at ESNS, you fulfil similar tasks as actual employees, therefore they treat you like an employee as well, which – for me – was a very professional atmosphere to work in. Of course, the end responsibility lies with ESNS, but they did make sure to include me in many things, to get a feel of the work responsibilities in the event organisation industry.

The first few months of the internship, approximately until mid- December, I got accustomed to many facets of the ticketing & CR department, how to function within a conference and festival organization, and how to properly execute the daily/weekly tasks. This translates into me learning to use systems like Universe and Azavista.

These systems work as customer databases and interfaces for buying tickets, as well as administrative functions for the ESNS delegates database. Besides this, the key task of my placement relied on planning, both on a bigger and smaller scale, and making sure it is executed well.

The last month and a half of my time at ESNS was mostly focused on executive tasks. As ESNS came closer, one of my main tasks was to make sure that every customer got the help they needed, via e-mail or telephone. This might not seem like a big task, but the other tasks, such as creating and sending invitations to delegates and keeping track of incoming data, remained just as important as helping everyone in time.

Therefore, being good at time management remained a very important

factor!

The overall assignment of the placement could be described as following; during the internship ticketing at ESNS, I will play a role in the preparation and mostly the execution of the needed systems/programs/statistics that are necessary in the ticketing department, for both the music showcase festival and the conference, and making sure that all these tasks run smoothly.

The learning outcomes that are connected to the main tasks of the placement, mostly focus on gaining insights into organizational structures in the music industry, and for ESNS in specific. These insights can be divided into bigger and smaller structures, or preparatory and executive tasks. From leading a project that focuses on planning and executing the recruitment of students who’d be employed during the conference, to making sure that certain invitations are sent out in time.

The preparatory – large-scaled – work focuses on the back-end of the ticketing systems and databases and making sure the connection between systems works smoothly. The executive stage of the internship focuses on practical matters on a smaller scale (i.e. communication with the visitors) and ensuring that the beforementioned large-scaled productions are implemented and executed correctly and in time.

In general, the placement turned out to be very successful. In my

personal evaluation conversation with Rene she mentioned that, when

regarding the specific tasks, the execution went well. I have improved my

planning skills, my communication skills and proved that I took

responsibility for many things. That being said, there are of course some

improvements to be made still. Sometimes I was a bit too colloquial,

wanted to hastily do things because of the pressure I put on myself,

instead of properly taking the time for certain things and sometimes I

took some issues a bit too personal. Even though I really liked this

learning experience, I – and Rene mentioned this as well – think that this

specific area within a festival organization might not be the best match to

me, as it required a lot of executive functioning, whereas we felt like my

qualities would be a better match to a function that requires more

creativity and conceptualizing.

Eurosonic Noorderslag

As mentioned on the ESNS website, “Eurosonic Noorderslag is a non-profit, European artist only, 100% showcase festival and music conference.” (

) Each year, the conference attracts over 4.000 delegates from the (European) music industry and showcases more than 300 European artists for more than 40.000 visitors. Spread out over four days (Wednesday the 15

to Saturday the 18

), by day ESNS is a conference that focuses on innovations and other updates of the music industry and by night the organization showcases many artists throughout several venues in the city centre of Groningen. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the focus lies on the Eurosonic-part of ESNS, so both the conference and showcase festival targets European music. And on Saturday, the Noorderslag-part of ESNS, the focus lies on the Dutch music industry and its upcoming artists.

The organisation consists of 6 fulltime employees, 6 part time employees and 94 freelancers (20 of which are present throughout the whole year. The core of the organisation consists of the Managing Director, Creative Director, Event Director, Head of Operations, Marketing Manager, Program Executive Director and the Head of Production. Further details are added into the organogram that is in the appendix.

ESNS Festival

Something that not many people might know – and I did not know either - when they first hear about ESNS, is its importance to the European music scene. Many are familiar with the ESNS Air programming, which is the costless event on the Grote Markt, but do not seem to know that is only one aspect of the entire program. Eurosonic’s main focus is stimulating the circulation of European music across the continent as well as beyond. ESNS provides a stage for upcoming European artists, often kickstarting the artist’s international career.

Artists themselves can apply for a spot by signing their act up on the ESNS website. The booking team will then carefully select approximately 350 artists that will then play on the festival.

ESNS Conference

Besides the very popular music festival, the organization is host of the ESNS Conference as well, which is held in the Oosterpoort. This edition was the first year where the conference switched to the Forum Groningen on Saturday. With over 4000 music industry professionals, the conference not only functions as a space for many keynotes and panels to be held but is also focussed on networking as well.

Awards

Next to the conference and music showcase festival, ESNS is also the host of many award shows, such as: the European Festival Awards, the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards, the Pop Media Prijs, Ijzeren Podiumdieren, Greener Festival Awards, de Veer, Popgala and the famous Dutch Popprijs.

Collaborations / Partners

As a European-centred festival, ESNS also has many collaborators coming from the European music industry. ESNS joins several local, national and international initiatives that are focussed on diversity and talent development. In the next section I will shed some light on some of these partnerships.

The European Talent Exchange Program (ETEP) is an initiative

created in 2003 in order to broaden the stage for European artists, or

rather, to ‘exchange talent’ throughout Europe to create a bigger impact of European artists. In practice, this results in a group of festivals who pay a yearly contribution, and in turn get to send three delegates (usually two bookers and one marketeer) to each of the affiliated festivals. One of the conditions is that the festival has to book a certain number of European artists who played at the festival they attended. As the ETEP website states as well, the program currently (most recent data is from 2018) has 122 participating festivals in 34 countries!

On a local scale, ESNS collaborates with Hit the North, an initiative for talent development and exchange for the three northern Dutch provinces; Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. Its mission is to select nine pop artists guide them through a project that coaches these artists and help them professionally as well, to support them in starting their future career.

Description of Placement – Detailed Programme

After the interview, Rene and I met a few times to create the placement plan, to decide on which tasks I would do and to create a few learning competences as well, which are mentioned in this section.

One of the main tasks of the internship is to research the CRM

systems ESNS was using and optimizing them. Until this edition, the

ticketing department of ESNS mostly relied on the ticketing system

Universe, which is mostly used for (administrating) the sales of tickets

for events. For visitors, the website is used to obtain festival tickets and

conference registrations. For us, the administrators, the website is the

back-end for the ticket sales. Besides keeping track of the data of the

sales, the website also serves as a customer database, where the information of many visitors is stored. This data is collected for our own purpose, and in the future also to customize ESNS’s marketing based on this data. Besides Universe, this edition we also started using Azavista.

The reason to start using Azavista, as well as Universe, is that ESNS had also decided to create a new database that could contain data from several years so it would remain dynamic

and let an app development company (WildSea) create a new delegates database, which would be accessible for all of the attendees of the conference, For the visitors, this feature is quite important as they are allowed access to this database for almost a year, being able to network. During my placement at ESNS we had find solutions to possible problems that could occur during the integration of Universe’s data into Azavista.

Another main project that I would take on was to be the project manager over the volunteers from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht. I would lead the project from start to finish, which entails that I got into contact with the HKU, and created a plan with them for this year’s edition of ESNS. Since I had never been a project manager before, I was really excited to take on this role, as it could teach me skills in leadership, for example.

Besides these two main aspects of the internship, I would also do a lot preparatory work in the first period and later focus on a lot of executive tasks as well. In short, the preparatory work focuses on preparing the festival tickets, so everything on the website would run smoothly, creating invitations for certain guests, preparing document for the sales statistics etc. The latter part of the internship would revolve around these things as well, but rather keeping track of all of the data that would come in in several ways, so during the event there would not be any major problems.

The placement at ESNS for the ticketing department is very diverse, as it doesn’t solely fit into one branch of ESNS’ organisational structure. A lot of the work is related to the productional aspect of the conference, so we had to think of ways to optimize the conference registration desk at the Forum Groningen for example. Moreover, the placement also included some marketing aspects as well. I had to write several invitations or other kinds of service e-mails where you need to focus on branding of ESNS as well. These different aspects created a dynamic work environment, so not a single day would look the same.

Description of Placement – Learning Outcomes

Similarly, to the tasks I had to do during my placement, the learning outcomes Rene and I created can be linked to the division of the preparatory and executive work. Both of these phases require different competences, but mainly focus on gaining insights into the organizational structures within ESNS and festivals in general, both on a larger and smaller scale.

During the preparatory stage of the internship, I had to think on a bigger scale within the organisation of the festival. This means I had to look into the beforementioned systems within ESNS and making sure that that they are integrated smoothly. This also required a lot of internal and external communication, both with the staff of ESNS as well as third parties, WildSea, for example.

To contrast this, the later stage of the placement focussed more on the execution of everything that had been prepared before. So, when all of the systems were up and running, we had to troubleshoot whenever it was needed. This involved a shift towards spending more time on customer relationship management. Since we started using the new delegates database, many visitors would have trouble getting into their account and we had to discover where their problem could lie and try to solve it, for example. These problems occurred because the database was new for everyone, and small mistakes needed to be filtered out, and it had to happen as soon as possible.

Rene and I had decided on the following learning outcomes, that she would also keep track of during my placement:

- Communicative skills

During my placement, Rene would keep track of both my internal- and external communication skills, yet also on our own communication, so we could keep track of tasks, time- management and organizational skills.

- Insights and creativity

Being able to apple my knowledge in certain tasks, finding creative solutions for problems that could occur.

- Sense of responsibility

During my placement, Rene had to rely on my sense of

responsibility for the tasks I would perform, making sure that

everything I finish is of good quality and finished in time.

Description of Placement – Execution and Evaluation

October/November

In the first month of my placement period at ESNS, I got accustomed to the organisation itself, as well as the daily tasks of the ticketing intern. These daily tasks were focussed on keeping track of the support@esns.nl e-mail account, where visitors could contact us for any question. I sometimes had to write visa application letters for non- European visitors, create invoices for organisations and private enterprises, answer questions about applications or registrations. The range of differences was quite big, so I had to shift my mentality quite often, from answering formally to CEO’s of record labels, to a more casual approach if a festival visitor wanted to know something about the ticket prices for example. In the beginning this could go a bit rough, since you do not always know how to approach certain people. But as the months passed it got easier to fit my use of language to the person I was communicating with.

Besides getting accustomed to the general professional work environment and festival structure, I had to understand the systems that ESNS uses. As I mentioned earlier, the implementation of Azavista played quite a big role here. At first, I had to start using Universe, which is the main ticketing system ESNS uses. Having no earlier work experience with these systems, it was difficult at times. We use Universe as a customer’s database, so every visitor’s personal details were on there, which is already a big responsibility of itself. As administrators of the website, we also had to make sure that all of the ticket types were on the website correctly (the visitor only sees a few of these tickets, but on the back-end there was a total of 121 ticket types) that each of these had the correct checkout questions, and make sure that everything ran smoothly.

After I understood the principles of Universe, we had to implement

a new CRM system, Azavista, into our routine as well. The reason for

using this platform as the main one, instead of Universe, had to do with

the fact that Universe is solely aimed towards ticketing and Azavista

could offer an event management solution. Before, Azavista was already

in use during the conference for checking in visitors and printing their

badge. But by starting to use Azavista’s event management solution

altogether, the visitor’s personal data could also be edited by the visitors

themselves, through the delegates database, which is in turn linked to

Azavista. This would make the check-in process easier. The delegates

database was created by WildSea, who got all of their data from Azavista,

so this connection had to run smoothly. Rene coordinated this and in practice there were several mistakes that had to be fixed, of which I would look into those problems, to see how and why they happened, and report it to Rene. Since the interface of the two systems are entirely different, it was difficult to navigate through Azavista, after just getting used to Universe. Luckily, most of the implementation from Azavista to Universe was done by the customer support of Azavista, since it would have been too technical for us to do.

Another task I had to keep track of, were the ticket sales and invitations. Every Monday, I had to export a report out of Universe, which would provide me with all of the numbers per ticket type. I had to process all of these numbers into a Google Sheet on our Google Drive, so we could keep track of the sales per year. Besides the statistics sheets, another important one is for all of the free registrations that are provided to some visitors. Since ESNS is focused on the music industry, many sponsors, guests, ETEP-members and media outlets are provided with either a free festival ticket or conference registration, most of them under different circumstances. In one of the sheets we keep track of all the applicants for these free tickets, which in total are over a thousand visitors. Not only did we have to keep track of these records, we also had to invite them ourselves, so many sorts of invitations had to be written, edited and sent to the right people, so everyone would get the correct registration.

In these first months I would also start to develop a plan for the

project I would take on, which regards the volunteer work of a group of

students from the HKU. To me, this was the most exciting thing to take

on, as it would give me a sense of responsibility over a group of people in

name of ESNS. I first created a draft action plan, in which I would

schedule all the different sorts of deadlines. Starting very broad, such as

meeting up with the two students who would be coordinating the project

in name of HKU, and setting deadlines for finishing recruitment material,

such as PowerPoint presentations, briefing documents and contracts. At

first, Rene and I wanted to collaborate with the RUG as well, and make it

a three-way project. Initially we had the plan to accommodate the

students at the houses of other students, so it would be similar to an

exchange. But we decided that this might not have been the best option,

since we wanted the students to be well rested, and sleeping in an

unusual place, with someone who you are not familiar with, does not

make that very easy. This is an example of one of the sudden changes of

our plan, since decisions do not always works the way you would want it

to. Later on, we decided to recruit the main part of the students from the

HKU, yet also ask Dr. Tonelli to provide a few students, so a possible future project between the RUG and ESNS could happen, instead of just abandoning this idea altogether.

December

In this period of the placement, I was mostly focussed on executing all the things that had been prepared, such as the recruitment of the students for my project and making sure that everything happened in time. The issue I sometimes struggled with, is that in this field (amongst many others) you are very dependent on the work of others. I always want to make sure everything is done in time and correctly, but that just does not always happen. For instance, we had decided to book an accommodation for the HKU students, but in order to do so we had to have a complete list of names of the people who would have liked to made use of this offer. When this list was complete, it turned out that less people actually wanted to sleep in the accommodation we arranged, which made quite a part of this arrangement unnecessary, something I did not know at the start, since it was not clearly communicated. Besides some minor inconveniences, such as me being a bit impatient and trying to rush certain decisions, the project went really well. I learned a lot about organizing a project within a bigger event structure, had to negotiate quite often, communicate on a semi-informal level with the students (which was different to all the other communication) as a project leader, and I had to figure out which productional aspects are relevant when recruiting a crew for an event.

Besides this project, I would also be involved in the Business Club,

which is an initiative focused on bringing together businesses across a

multitude of fields. The club consists primarily of businesses based in the

Northern Netherlands and aims to create the most optimal networking

setting, whilst enjoying the buzz and dynamics of a large European

festival. Each club member is offered unique membership privileges. Our

part was to do the ticketing, write e-mails to the Business Club-members

and provide them with all the needed information, which could be

difficult since the members would get different privileges than regular

visitors. We had to create a policy for this specific group, since they

received privileges for being members, such as early entrance to the

venues, or access to award shows. the I found this to be very interesting,

since I had to communicate on a very formal level, yet also target it

towards a group of people who love music.

A task that I did not expect to be doing during this period, was finding solutions for the problems visitors encountered when using the delegates database on the ESNS website. The database was supposed to go online at the end of October, but due to some difficulties with Azavista, this was delayed until the beginning of December. Since we launched a new database platform, everything was new for the visitors, as well as for us. Many people could not log in, or did not know how to change details on their profile. At first, Azavista would solve these problems, but since it took quite some time to send them the errors and let them solve it, we could later access the database back-end and troubleshoot ourselves, this was a quicker - and more visitor friendly - solution. This resulted into some IT-work, trying to find out why some people who had bought a ticket, could for some reason not log into the database, or were not visible for others. I really liked that we were able to do this as well, it was quite fulfilling to be able to help people in a field that you have never worked in before.

January

The month of January was definitely the most stressful part of the entire placement, as this was what we had been preparing for the whole time. When January started, I could immediately notice how the workload become more intense. Whereas a month ago our inbox would usually have 10-20 unanswered e-mails at maximum, in January the average was arriving at the office with 150+ unopened e-mails. I found this to be quite frustrating, as there was no possibility to answer all of those e-mails in one or 2 days, but I still felt the responsibility to do so. In these last two weeks preceding the festival, many of the beforementioned aspects still needed to be actually executed. This resulted into having several smaller deadlines a day, all being very different tasks. I needed to do a briefing for the HKU and RUG students, had to get all of their contracts in order – this could be a bit frustrating, since not everyone delivered their ID’s and signed contracts in time, but all in all it worked out fine.

During the week of the festival, we worked really long days, which

was quite hard for me to get accustomed to, and also made me question

whether that is something that I would be willing to do in later jobs.. On

the first day of the conference, I was the only one of our team at the back

office, doing the tasks I would usually do; answering e-mails, sending

invitations, keeping track of the free registrations/tickets, solving

database problems, et cetera. Another one of the daily tasks during this

week was to appoint people their correct wristband colour. Each ticket

type has a certain type of wristband, and this needed to be appointed

manually by us. The main part had already been assigned by Romy, the conference ticketing manager, but we needed to do this every daily, for all the newly registered visitors. On the morning of start of the conference, I made the mistake to appoint every visitor their correct wristband, instead of only the new ones. Later on in the day, Romy called me about this, since many people got an ‘upgrade’ on their wristband, so they could enter a venue more quickly for example. I was unaware of my mistake, also because I felt some pressure of assigning the wristbands quickly, in the morning. Of course, this mistake was solved by Romy, but it made me feel quite disappointed in myself, since I wanted to ‘get it over with’ in the morning, without fully realizing that I might have done it wrong.

All in all, the conference and festival themselves were an amazing experience. I got to work as a desk manager as well, both in De Oosterpoort on Thursday and Friday, and in the Forum on Saturday. Our job as a desk manager focused on being in charge of the group of students who were checking all of the visitors in, making sure no problems occurred and if there was a problem, we were there to solve this. For example, if someone was not in the system, but mentioned they were a guest, I had to look them up in all of our sheets/systems, create their registration on the spot, so the visitor could enter the conference.

When evaluating with Rene after the festival, we discussed my

performance during the placement, and talked about the following

points. At the beginning of my placement at ESNS, I could be a bit

hesitant in my communication, not always knowing how to correctly

communicate with certain people, I could either be too formal, too

informal, or my use of language could be a bit rough. Over time though,

I’ve improved my writing and communication skills, this also resulted in

being able to quickly switch from being formal, to communicating

informal as well. On the other hand, I still have a lot to learn in terms of

communication. I can avoid conflict a bit or take those conflicts too

personal. Some small issues that came up, through e-mail, I either

wanted to ‘quickly get it over with’ just so that the problem would be

solved quickly, when a better solution could’ve been made if I had taken a

bit more time. Or another example, if another party would state

something that they want, but you could simply not grant that to them, I

had some difficulty distancing myself from a choice made by ESNS, as if

it were a personal choice I did not fully stand behind. Similarly,

sometimes I worked a bit too quick, which resulted in minor mistakes,

such as not having the correct link in a specific e-mail, to which we later

got some replies saying that the link does not work, which is

unprofessional. Overall though, the internal communication in our team went really well, though I could sometimes be a bit too comfortable around my colleagues. The line between being friendly towards a colleague, and sometimes treating them as if they were friends, was sometimes hard to define, which resulted in me calling Rene ‘sweetie’, for example. Another good point of improvement was made in regard to planning, and overseeing this planning as well. Since the internship relied on being very punctual, it has definitely made me a better planner, being able to multitask between different sorts of tasks and making sure everything happened in time. I also really enjoyed having to think creatively when it comes to finding solutions, though it was sometimes difficult, as I did not have any prior festival experience, but it was a good challenge. Furthermore, except for the incident of the wristbands that I mentioned earlier, I think my sense of responsibility has grown as well, I like to take on many projects, but I could also notify Rene when I thought something was out of my reach and needed help with something.

Conclusion

After spending a few months working at ESNS, I have learned

many new things about myself. I have learned that there are many skills

that I developed in this short time, such as being able to take part in

planning for a large-scaled multinational event, multitask between

different kinds of responsibilities and develop a personal style of

communication in a professional work environment. I should say though,

that I do not think my future lies in this specific branch of event

organisation, mostly because the pressure could be very high at times,

which led to me making a few mistakes and feeling tense at times as

well. There were so many things I did enjoy doing, such as translating

ESNS’s terms and conditions to English, being a project coordinator,

trying to think of creative solutions, working with systems that I had

never heard of before and most of the times even the customer support. I

think I would really like to develop myself further into the event

organisation branch, potentially in marketing or developing concepts, as

I could be more creative and focus more bigger projects, instead of

ticketing, where most things I did were very executive in nature. These

past few months have been a really valuable learning experience that has

definitely helped me to find out what I like and dislike about the music

industry, which qualities and flaws I have and how I can develop myself

further.

Reference

ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag) | 15 – 18 January 2020 | Groningen, NL, <

https://esns.nl/>, 15 February 2020.

Appendix

Fig. 1: ESNS’s Organogram (2020)

Fig. 2: Example of an e-mail targeted to the Business Club (in Dutch)

Over een maand is het weer zover, dan gaat Eurosonic Noorderslag 2020 van start! Ons team is al druk bezig met de voorbereidingen van de conferentie en het festival. We hebben er veel zin in, hopelijk jij ook. Als lid van de Business Club ontvang je naast toegang tot het festival een hoop andere extra´s en we zetten graag alle voorwaarden van het membership voor je op een rij. Als je al een membership hebt aangeschaft, dan zal deze informatie een handige opfrisser zijn.

Goed om te weten: is je bedrijfslogo veranderd of ben je een nieuw lid? Stuur het logo van je bedrijf dan z.s.m. naar ons op via sandra.faber@esns.nl!

Bezoek ESNS 2020 als Business Club member

Als lid van de Business Club kun je het ESNS Festival met voorrang bezoeken.

Dit is onderdeel van je membership. Bij een membership voor 2 of 4 personen zul je dit dus twee- of viermaal ontvangen.

Mocht je ook geïnteresseerd zijn in de conferentie, dan kun je per lid toegang tot de conferentie aanschaffen voor €200,-. Deze registraties zijn persoonsgebonden en bieden toegang tot de gehele conferentie van donderdag t/m zaterdag.

Extra tickets aanschaffen voor ESNS 2020

Wil je extra gasten meenemen naar het festival? Dat kan! Bij een membership voor 1 persoon kun je max. 3 festivalpassepartouts bijkopen, bij een membership voor 2 personen kun je max. 6 festivalpassepartouts bijkopen en bij een membership voor 4 personen kun je max. 12 festivalpassepartouts bijkopen.

Daarnaast heb je de keuze uit of dit reguliere festivaltickets zijn of tickets die voorrang hebben op de reguliere festivalbezoekers rij.

Wanneer wij de tickets versturen, zal dit op bedrijfsnaam zijn, dus houd er rekening mee dat er een verschil is tussen het ticket voor het Business Club lid en de andere (reguliere) tickets. Verder is het goed om te weten dat de tickets die we versturen dagtickets zijn, ook de passepartouts. Hierbij kun je zelf bepalen hoe je de tickets wil verdelen!

Om toegang te krijgen tot Eurosonic (wo - vr) moet je per dag een dagbandje ophalen bij onze Box Office, die dit jaar in het nieuwe Forum Groningen te vinden is. Op de zaterdag, voor Noorderslag, kun je rechtstreeks naar de Oosterpoort. Bij aanschaf van extra reguliere tickets kun je in de gastenrij staan en wordt je ticket gescand. Als je Noorderslag tickets met voorrang hebt gekocht kun je eerder op de avond bij de Oosterpoort naar binnen en word je verwelkomd met een borrel en bite!

Wil je extra tickets aanschaffen? Neem dan contact op met Sandra Faber, zij is te bereiken via sandra.faber@esns.nl! Laat hierin duidelijk weten om hoeveel tickets het gaat en of je reguliere tickets wilt aanschaffen, of tickets met voorrang.

Naast de conferentie en het festival heeft ESNS nog meer te bieden voor jou als lid van de Business Club. Denk hierbij aan de club tour, Popgala Noord, netwerkborrels en diners. De exacte programmering hiervan laat nog even op zich wachten, maar je ontvangt hierover voor de kerstdagen bericht.

Bij vragen of opmerkingen kun je contact opnemen met Sandra Faber, zowel via de mail als de telefoon (0625190266)

We hopen je te verwelkomen bij de komende editie van ESNS, graag tot in 2020!

Vriendelijke groeten,

Sandra Faber | Manager Business Club

Fig. 3: Eurosonic Noorderslag’s General Terms and Conditions, translated by me.

Stichting Eurosonic Noorderslag General Terms and Conditions 23 December 2019

General Terms and Conditions

These general terms and conditions of the foundation Stichting Eurosonic Noorderslag has its registered office in the municipality of Groningen, office at (9724 DA) Groningen at the Trompsingel 21, (Chamber of Commerce number:

0206.1408 and VAT number: NL.8072.908.77.B.01), to be further referred to as

“the Organisation”, apply to agreements made between the Organisation and visitors of the 'Eurosonic Noorderslag/ESNS' event, and/or any other events to be organised by the Organisation, to be further referred to as: “t he Event”, further referred to as: “the General Terms and Conditions”.

Article 1 - Scope of application

1.1 The General Terms and Conditions apply to all agreements made within the context of the visit to the Event, the purchase of all tickets for the Event (both for the festival, the conference and the special events and also apply to guests who receive a ticket by invitation) and the booking of an overnight stay in an accommodation between the visitor and the Organisation, regardless of how this is established. With the purchase and/or use of a ticket and/or the booking of an overnight stay in an accommodation via the Organisation and/or entering the venue of the Event to be referred to as: “the E vent Location”, the visitor agrees with the contents of the General Terms and Conditions.

1.2 The Event Location may employ house rules that apply in addition to the General Terms and Conditions. By buying or using a ticket and/or entering the venue of the Event, the visitor agrees with these house rules in advance.

1.3 The Organisation may change the General Terms and Conditions partly or in its entirety at all times. Visitors will be informed of such changes beforehand as the Organisation will state this on its website.

Article 2 - House rules

2.1 Visitors must at all times comply with the (house) rules of the Event and the instructions of the staff and authorised parties. If the Organisation deems it reasonably necessary to maintain peace and order during the Event, or in the Event of non-compliance with the (house) rules, it has the right to deny the visitor (further) access to the Event and/or to remove the visitor from the Event Location, without the visitor being entitled to a refund of any compensation.

2.2 The Organisation has the right to check visitors' bags for prohibited items and to search visitors. Bags that are larger than an A4 size will not be admitted to the Event Location. If the visitor refuses to cooperate, the visitor may be denied (further) access to the Event Location, without the visitor being entitled to a refund of any compensation.

2.3 It is not permitted to bring cameras, recording equipment, animals, alcohol, drugs, cans or plastic bottles to the Event Location. Recording equipment may be confiscated for the duration of the Event. Photography and video with professional equipment is only allowed when the visitor is in possession of a photo/video pass.

2.4 The Event Location does not serve alcohol to visitors under the age of 18.

Smoking is prohibited at event locations.

2.5 Visitors enter the Event Location and attend the Event at their own risk.

The Organisation is not liable for loss of, theft of and/or damage to visitors' possessions, consequential damage and immaterial damage. The organiser is not accountable or responsible for hearing damage and other physical impairments that may be related to visiting the Event.

Article 3 - Tickets

3.1 The agreement between the Organisation and the visitor for the purchase of tickets is established after an order for one or more tickets has been placed at a pre-sale location (defined by the Organisation). An agreement also exists if a visitor accepts a guest invitation or accreditation.

3.2 Universe is the exclusive ticketing provider appointed by the Organisation. Tickets are only available on the website of the Organisation and the ticketing provider. Only purchase from an authorised (advance) sales address guarantees the validity of the ticket.

3.3 This transaction does not qualify as a mail order or an e-commerce sales contract as referred to in Sections 46a to 46j of Book 7 of the Dutch Civil Code.

This means that the seven day revocation right does not apply. A placed order is irrevocable immediately after purchase and subsequent confirmation by the Organisation. The Organisation reserves the right at all times to refuse orders, or to impose additional conditions.

3.4 The Organisation cannot guarantee the receipt of a ticket or confirmation of a conference registration; if the visitor has not received a ticket or confirmation of a registration, he must report this to the Organisation in time for the Event. In time refers to such a period before the start of the Event that the Organisation can re-issue the purchased ticket or confirmation of registration. In addition, the visitor must check this for its correctness. The visitor bears the burden of proof that he has purchased the ticket from the

Organisation or an (advance) sales address. If the ticket has been purchased from the Organisation or an advance sales address, the visitor will receive a new ticket. In the absence of proof, the Organisation is not obliged to provide the visitor with a new ticket or confirmation of registration. Please note that in the case of a conference registration, the actual ticket will be released only seven days prior to the Event.

3.5 The tickets are and remain the property of the Organisation. From the moment the ticket is made available to the visitor, the visitor bears the risk of loss, theft, damage or misuse thereof. The Organisation does not accept any liability for loss of or damage to tickets for any reason whatsoever. In the case that the Organisation is asked by the visitor for replacement tickets, the Organisation is entitled to refuse this or to charge a fee for this.

3.6 The Organisation has the right to set a maximum number of tickets to be ordered per visitor. The visitor is obliged to comply with the maximum number of tickets.

3.7 When entering the Event Location, the visitor must have a valid ticket or registration and a valid proof of identity. Upon arrival at the Event, visitors will receive a wristband after submitting their ticket or registration. This wristband must be worn on the wrist during the entire duration of the Event and may not be removed or changed to another wearer. The wristband must be shown at the first request of employees of the Organisation, the Event Location, security staff, police and/or other authorised parties.

3.8 Conference registrations are sold by name (personalized) and are not transferable. When registrations are exchanged for a wristband at the registration desk during the Event, the identity of the holder of the registration will be requested in order to determine whether it matches the name on the registration, and to deny the holder access to the Event if it does not match.

Conference

registrations are only accepted from a physical or legal person (artistic names, false names or similar are not accepted).

3.9 In the case of festival tickets, the holder who is the first to show the ticket at the start of the Event will be the one who gets access to the Event. The Organisation may assume that this holder is also the entitled owner and is not obliged to check the validity of the ticket and/or the identity of the holder.

However, the Organisation may also decide to sell the festival tickets by name (personalized). The Organisation has the right (but not the obligation) to check the identity of the holder of the festival ticket in order to determine whether it corresponds to the name on the ticket, and if it does not, to deny access to the Event to the holder.

3.10 The Organisation's refund policy states that a conference registration can be cancelled, after which the purchase price will be refunded, minus €25 administration costs. However, registrations can only be cancelled and refunded up to one month prior to the first day of the Event. This means that if the Event starts on January 15, a refund must be requested before December 15. You can request a refund by contacting us at support@esns.nl.

3.11 The Organisation's refund policy states that festival tickets are not refundable.

3.12 Information, such as announcements and quotations, relating to the Event and/or tickets will be provided as accurately as possible. The Organisation is not to be held responsible for any inaccuracies or incompleteness in the information provided as referred to above.

Article 4 - Reselling and transferring tickets

4.1 The visitor is not permitted to offer tickets for sale for commercial purposes, to distribute them or to refer to the tickets in commercial statements.

4.2 The visitor may not advertise in any way or make any (other) form of publicity in connection to the Event and/or any part of it, if this is done with the intention of (re)selling the ticket(s).

4.3 Visitors are permitted to sell festival tickets to third parties via Ticketswap, on the condition that this is not in the interests of commercial purposes. Please note that buying tickets via Ticketswap is not without risk. In the case of festival tickets, the holder who is the first to show the ticket at the start of the Event is the one who is given access to the Event. Only a purchase from a certified (pre)sales address guarantees the validity of the ticket. The Organisation is not liable if tickets purchased through third-party organisations are invalid.

4.4 If the visitor does not pass on or sell his ticket to third parties for commercial purposes, the visitor is required to impose the obligations set out in the General Terms and Conditions on the person to whom he handed over the ticket.

4.5 If the visitor is a natural person who is not acting in the practice of a profession or business (hereinafter referred to as: consumer), the visitor, in violation of any obligation as referred to in this article, will owe the Organisation an immediately payable penalty of €1,000 per violation per ticket and €250 for each day that the violation continues, with a maximum of €15,000, notwithstanding the Organisation's right to demand the visitor’s compliance with and/or to pay compensation for the damages incurred or yet to be suffered.

4.6 If the visitor is not a consumer, then, in the Event of a violation of any obligation as referred to in this article, the visitor will owe the Organisation an immediately payable penalty of €10,000 per violation per ticket and €5,000 for each day that the violation continues, up to a maximum of €40,000, notwithstanding the Organisation's right to demand the visitor's compliance with and/or compensation for the damages incurred or yet to be suffered.

4.7 A ticket that has been or will be resold and/or used for commercial purposes may be nullified by the Organisation in accordance with article 7.1 of the General Terms and Conditions. An annulled ticket does not give (or no longer gives) the right to attend the Event.

Article 5 - Accommodations

5.1 The agreement between the Organisation and the visitor for booking overnight stays in accommodations is concluded, after an order for one or more products has been placed with (a (pre)sales address employed by) the Organisation. An agreement is also established if a visitor spends the night in an accommodation at the expense of the Organisation.

5.2 In order to book overnight stays at accommodations during the Event, the Organisation has collaborated with Festival.Travel. The sale of overnight stays in accommodation offered by ESNS can be booked through the website of the organization in collaboration with Festival.Travel or directly through the organization. The Organisation is not responsible for any problems with accommodations booked on one's own initiative.

5.3 In order to confirm the booking of an accommodation, it must be paid in advance. This can be done via iDeal, Paypal or credit card. After processing the payment, the visitor receives a confirmation from Festival.Travel. or from ESNS.

The actual booking document (voucher) will be sent to the visitor

7 days in advance of the booking by email and can also be found in the online environment of Festival.Travel. The actual delivery of the order takes place on location; before or during the Event.

5.4 Overnight stays in accommodations are sold by name (personalized). A booking is only accepted from a physical or legal person (artistic names, false names or similar are not accepted). The visitor must have a valid booking- and identification document when entering the accommodation. The Organisation is entitled, likewise the cooperating parties that offers accommodation, to deny the visitor access to the accommodation if the identity does not correspond to the name on the booking document.

5.5 The visitor is not permitted to (re)sell overnight stays in accommodations offered by the Organisation to third parties, to offer it for sale, to offer it for commercial purposes, to provide accommodation tickets, or refer to the overnight stays in commercial statements.

5.6 If a visitor wishes to transfer his or her overnight stay to a third party for non-commercial purposes, the visitor is obliged to report this to the Organisation. In this case, please contact the Organisation in time by e-mail at hotels@esns.nl. The visitor is required to impose the obligations set out in the General Terms and Conditions on the person to whom he transfers the ticket.

The visitor guarantees that the third party will comply with these obligations.

5.7 An order placed may be cancelled until 1 December 2019. Until then, the Organisation will refund the money to the account of the visitor. This amount is exclusive of €25,00 administration costs per room. After 1 December 2019, a placed order cannot be cancelled. The Organisation retains the right to deny orders at any time, or to impose additional conditions.

5.8 The visitor is responsible for the accommodation and interior, and can be held accountable for any damage or loss of the accommodation and/or interior.

Smoking or open fire is not permitted in the accommodation. In the Event of improper use, or leaving the accommodation behind inadequately, extra costs will be charged.

5.9 Each accommodation may only be occupied by the maximum number of persons stated on the website for the accommodation in question.

5.10 The Organisation is not to be held accountable for loss, theft, damage or injury caused to or by users of the accommodation.

5.11 Information, such as announcements and quotations, relating to the Event and/or associated products will be provided as accurately as possible. The Organisation is not responsible for any inaccuracies or incompleteness in the information provided for this purpose.

5.12 The Organisation is not responsible for the quality, hygiene, safety or service of the booked accommodation.

Article 6 - Cashless

6.1 ESNS will be a cashless event. In certain event locations, the visitor will only be able to pay for goods and services by using a wristband embedded with an NFC chip (a “Tag”) or a chip card (also referred to as a “Tag”). In some event locations the visitor might need to present their Tag in order to be allowed entrance. This Tag is operated by PlayPass NV, and will be issued to the visitor on entry into the Festival. For further information on the cashless system of ESNS, consult the Cashless Terms and Conditions or contact the Organisation, by email at cashless@esns.nl

6.2 During the festival the visitor must at all times keep their Tag on the wrist or (if not possible) such other secure location on them.

6.3 The visitor can credit their tag both online and at certain event locations, with a maximum balance of

€ 200. If a visitor wants to top up their tag online, the visitor must create a personal online account. The unused credit can be refunded to the visitor, if the visitor has an online account. In most ESNS locations payments with PIN and cash are also accepted.

6.4 The visitor must immediately notify a member of staff at one of the service points at the Event if their Tag is lost, stolen, damaged or if they know or suspect that anyone has used the credit on their Tag or knows their user identification code/password. When this occurs, the visitor should provide information required to verify their identity to deactivate, suspend or cancel their tag.

6.5 Our partner, Playpass NV, will use the personal data received from or regarding the visitor, directly or indirectly through the use of the Tag to carry out their services connected to the use of the Tag. The Organisation is not liable for the use of the visitor’s personal data by these partners. For more information on the way PlayPass uses personal information read the Privacy Policy available at h ttps://playpass.ca/privacy.

Article 7 - Force majeure and cancellation or relocation of the Event

7.1 In accordance with Section 6:75 of the Dutch Civil Code, a shortcoming in the compliance by the Organisation cannot be attributed to it in the Event of force majeure. Force majeure includes any circumstance beyond the control of

the Organisation - even if it was foreseeable as a possibility at the time the agreement was concluded - that temporarily or permanently prevents the execution of the agreement, such as war, riots, police and/or fire brigade action, strikes, transport difficulties, fire and other serious disturbances in the company of the Organisation or third parties, weather conditions, non-functioning public transport, illness and/or cancellation of the artist(s), bankruptcy of artists and/or organisation, nuisance and/or unlawful acts caused by third parties, including other visitors and/or the artists, by maintenance work, by improper functioning of facilities, and by other events.

7.2 In case of force majeure, the Organisation has the right to postpone the Event to an earlier or later date or to cancel the Event.

7.3 If the Event is cancelled by the Organisation as a result of or in connection with force majeure, the Organisation will only be obliged to refund the customer the reimbursement of the net ticket price. The service costs per conference registration are €25. The service costs for the festival tickets are

€3.50 for Noorderslag Young, Eurosonic Wednesday and Eurosonic Academy and €4.50 for other festival tickets. These costs and / or other damage will not be refunded. Refunds will only be made within twelve weeks after the cancelled date at the latest, after the visitor has handed over a valid and undamaged ticket for the (cancelled) event. The customer cannot claim (replacing) access for another event.

7.4 If the Event is postponed by the Organisation to another date, the ticket will remain valid for the new date on which the Event will take place. If the visitor is unable or unwilling to visit the Event on the new date, he is entitled to surrender his ticket to a (pre)sales address against a refund of the fee paid by the visitor to the Organisation or the (pre)sales address minus the service costs of €25 for a conference registration, €3.50 for Noorderslag Young, Eurosonic Wednesday and Eurosonic Academy and €4.50 for other festival tickets. This refund will only take place if the visitor presents a valid and undamaged ticket in good time. If the Event is moved to a later date, the visitor can only claim a refund if he has returned the ticket to the (pre) sales address within four weeks of the date on which the Event takes place. If the Event has been moved to an earlier date, the visitor can only claim a refund within four weeks after the (old) date as stated on the ticket. Partial cancellation (less than 50% of the Event) does not entitle you to a refund.

Article 8 - Rights of the Organisation

8.1 In the Event that the visitor violates (one or more of) the provisions referred to in the General Terms and Conditions, the visitor will be in default by operation of law without the need for further notice of default, and the Organisation will be entitled to revoke the purchase with immediate effect and without judicial intervention, and/or to deny the visitor access to the Event (or any further access to the Event), for example, by cancelling the ticket without the visitor having the right to a refund of any compensation. An invalidated ticket does not (or no longer) entitle the visitor to access the Event.

8.2 The Organisation is entitled to immediately deny the visitor who has violated the rules of the General Terms and Conditions during or at one or more

previous visits to the Event Location, or when there is a justified fear of damage by the visitor in any other way, the (further) access to the Event Location for an indefinite or a definite period of time and to remove the visitor from the Event Location.

8.3 If it is likely that there has been a forgery of the ticket, the Organisation is entitled to deny the holder of the ticket (further) access to the Event and to invalidate the ticket, without the visitor or the holder being able to claim any damage he suffers as a result.

8.4 The Organisation has the right to adjust the (regular) opening hours to incidental exercises for the purposes of company emergency response or, in the Event of a calamity, to evacuate the Event Location in whole or in part, without the visitor being entitled to a refund of any compensation and/or compensation for damage.

Article 9 - Liability

9.1 Visitors enter the Event Location and attend the Event at their own risk.

The Organisation is not liable for loss of, theft of and/or damage to visitors' possessions.

9.2 The Organisation is not responsible or liable for any damage as a result of the cancellation, changes or deviations in (the content of) the programme of the Event, nor for any other damage, for whatever reason, which is directly or indirectly the result of acts or omissions of the Organisation and/or the Event Location, of persons in (one of) their service, or of other persons employed by or on account of (one of) them, or of third parties, during the Event or in connection with the stay at the Event Location, unless the damage is the result of deliberate intent or gross fault on the part of the Organisation.

9.3 If and to the extent that the Organisation, despite the foregoing, may be liable to the visitor for any damage suffered by the visitor on whatever grounds, this liability will at all times be limited to direct - and therefore not indirect or immaterial - damage up to the amount that will be paid out under the Organisation's legal liability insurance policy, and only if the Organisation is legally obliged to do so. In such a case, the Organisation is only liable if the visitor immediately informs the Organisation in writing of the shortcoming, with a reasonable period of time in which to comply with the obligation, and if the Organisation continues to fail to comply with that obligation even after the notice of default has been given.

9.4 The visitor is informed that loud music will be played during the Event.

The Organisation advises visitors to wear hearing protection and to regularly go to an environment where no music is played in order to allow the hearing to rest. The visitor is also aware that (stroboscopic) lighting effects may be used, which can cause (epileptic) attacks. The Organisation is not liable or responsible for hearing damage and other physical disorders that may be related to visiting the Event.

Article 10 - Privacy and personal data

10.1 The Organisation processes personal data of customers and visitors on its website in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act, as set out in the Privacy Statement on the website

w ww.esns.nl.

10.2 Image and/or sound recordings of the Event and the visitors may be made and recordings will be made public or reproduced. The visitor grants unconditional permission to make the aforementioned recordings and exploit them without the Organisation or third parties being obliged to pay any compensation to the visitor. The visitor hereby assigns any neighbouring and/or copyrights and/or portrait rights to the Organisation without any restrictions.

Furthermore, the visitor irrevocably renounces the right to invoke his/her personality rights.

Article 11 - Final provisions

11.1 The General Terms and Conditions and/or related agreements are solely governed by Dutch law.

11.2 Any disputes, of whatever nature, that may arise between a visitor and the Organisation as a result of (the use or application of) the General Terms and Conditions and/or related agreements, will be submitted exclusively to the competent court in Groningen.