European Festival Awards Public Voting Now Open

Festival fans can now officially have their say on this year's festival season as voting in the 6th edition of the European Festival Awards is live and running until Monday 27th October 2014.

More than 300 European Festivals, from the smallest to the largest, representing 33 countries will be vying for the Best Major, Medium-sized, Small, New, and Indoor Festival Awards, plus the highly coveted Best European Line-Up Award.

Artists are in the running too with international titans Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, and Arctic Monkeys jostling with Continental superstars like Belgium’s Stromae and younger upstarts Imagine Dragons for the title of Best Headliner.

Newcomer Of The Year sees the UK pull a strong suit with London Grammar, Jungle, and Royal Blood but how will they fare against Germany’s Milky Chance, Ireland’s Hozier, and The Netherlands’ Birth of Joy? All will be decided by the people whose opinions matter the most - the festival fans of Europe.

Everyone who registers to vote is eligible for entry into a prize draw to win a pair of tickets to every winning festival and those who choose to take part in our annual Festival Awards Census could also win an iPad mini this year.

The final shortlist will be announced on 4th November with the winners revealed at the European Festival Awards ceremony which returns to crown the opening night of Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, The Netherlands on Wednesday 15th January 2015. This is a sell-out event so don't miss out - secure your tickets now, at eu.festivalawards.com/tickets.

Presented in association with Yourope and Eurosonic Noorderslag the European Festival Awards are the only pan-European body solely dedicated to recognizing the contributions and achievements of the event organizers and performing artists that generate billions of Euros for local economies and brighten up the summer for tens of millions of festival-goers each year.

The Voting Process: Once again, the winners will be decided by a combination of public votes and the EFA jury - made up of journalists, booking agents, festival organizers - who will have a 25 percent say in the final outcome of the public voted categories. Click here for more information on how this works.

Festival Awards Director Steve Jenner, says: “The expansion in the number of countries and festivals taking part in the European Festival Awards is a positive indicator of confidence returning to the market after a tough few years. It's going to be exciting to find out which events the fans loved the most."

As well as the public voted categories, the European Festival Awards features a number of more specialist prizes, which are decided by juries of industry experts. These include Promoter Of The Year, The Green Operations Award, The Lifetime Achievement Award, and this year’s new Award For Excellence And Passion. The shortlists in these are announced with the public-voted ones on Monday 4th November.

About Festival Awards Europe
Established in 2009, in co-operation between Festival Awards Ltd, Yourope (the European Festival Association) and Eurosonic Noorderslag, Festival Awards Europe is the only event solely dedicated to recognizing the contributions and achievements of the event organizers and performing artists that generate billions of Euros for local economies and brighten up the summer for tens of millions of festival-goers each year. Decided by a combination of public vote and industry juries, the awards are presented at a sold-out ceremony taking place at Groningen’s De Oosterport in The Netherlands.