The new music and city culture festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW), scheduled to take place on 25 – 29 March, announced the festival’s music programme line-up. The programme has confirmed 155 artists from 29 countries. New venues in the programme are Fotografiska Tallinn, the Noblessner foundry’s Nobel Hall and the Kai Art Center. This year the festival is also taking day trips to Lasnamäe and Paldiski. 

Starting today, 4 February, single tickets for the TMW 2020 showcases are on sale at Piletilevi. TMW 2020 Festival Passes for 55 euros, and Conference + Festival Pass for 175 euros are on sale at the TMW web shop.

TMW 2020 is presented by Telia.

The TMW 2020 music programme is organised in cooperation with the Damn.Loud agency. 

Between Thursday, 26 March, and Saturday, 28 March, the TMW 2020 music programme brings together artists from the world over and a wide spectrum of genres. Currently, 155 acts from 29 countries have been confirmed for the programme, with the greatest share from Estonia – 74 acts. Next is Finland with 13, Russia with 11, Canada with 6 and the UK with 5 artists. Farther reaches represented in the programme include, among others, New Zealand, Egypt and Japan. In total, TMW will present 24 showcases on 12 stages.

Similarly to last year, the music programme will be concentrated mostly in the Telliskivi Creative City and Port Noblessner in North Tallinn. New exciting event venues in the programme are fine-art photography centre Fotografiska Tallinn, Noblessner foundry’s Nobel Hall and the Kai Art Centre. TMW also invites to join the weekend day-trips to the concrete high-rise district of Lasnamäe and to the coastal town of Paldiski.

On 26 March, the opening night of TMW 2020, the Tampere Region’s Capital of Culture bid 2026 – running in collaboration with the largest cultural centre in the Nordics, Tampere Hall, which celebrates its 30th birthday this year – will present the programme for Fotografiska. The night’s line-up will include both the famous Finnish jazz guitarist Jarmo Saari’s supergroup, as well as Estonian Anna Kaneelina, who raked in four wins at this year’s Estonian Music Awards. On Friday, the Estonian group OOPUS will curate a folktronica night at Fotografiska. On Saturday, the festival Üle Heli will present a programme of explorational sounds, where among others the Estonian dada pop group Kreatiivmootor will take the stage.

Two new venues in the TMW programme are the Noblessner foundry’s Nobel Hall and the Kai Art Centre. The Nobel Hall will host a programme co-curated by the creative centre Sevkabel Port from St. Petersburg and the Stereoleto festival, to be headlined by the US noise rock group A Place To Bury Strangers. The historic foundry, once the melting pot of non-ferrous metals, will also provide the stage for the Funk Embassy night with several fresh new acts from the local scene, including the blue-eyed soul newcomer Rita Ray. Both nights at the Nobel Hall are presented by the PROTO Invention Factory. Along a rich programme of domestic residents, the House of Acid party at Noblessner’s techno club HALL will also feature celebrated UK analogue-acid master Ceephax Acid Crew.

The Kai Art Centre, which opened at Port Noblessner last autumn, will be the location for two showcases of unique sounds. Eesti Kontsert will present young Estonian percussion virtuosos, performing the works of Rimski-Korsakov and Steve Reich on real and VR simulation instruments, and the chamber choir Collegium Musicale with new Estonian music from Tüür to Uusberg. IDA community radio’s experimental line-up at the art centre includes the US/Swedish sound artist Kali Malone’s dark minimalism and the Norwegian queer artist and saxophonist Benedik Giske.

As an intimate and special concert venue, this year’s programme once again includes the church of the Tallinn Kalju Baptist Congregation in Kalamaja, where the Finnish ensemble TampereRaw will present music by Finnish composer Cecilia Damström, with a theme of “Woman’s Destiny”. This show is dedicated to the memory of two headstrong and extraordinary Finnish women – Aino Sibelius, wife of Jean Sibelius, and the first Finnish female journalist and cultural figure Minna Canth.

The Telliskivi performance centre Vaba Lava will be once again taken over by jazz and folk, for the first time as a joint showcase. The Estonian Jazz Union, the Jazzkaar Festival and the Viljandi Folk Music Festival will join forces to present stars from both genres. Performers include acclaimed Estonian jazz artist Kadri Voorand, the President’s Young Cultural Figure Award 2019 laureate, in a duo with guitarist Mihkel Mälgand, as well as young folk innovators Duo Ruut. The Made In Baltics & Sony Music Vaba Lava night will be all about the Estonian power-folk troupe Trad.Attack! who will present their upcoming full-length.

At the Erinevate Tubade Klubi (ETK, Club of Different Rooms), the Made in Canada programme will feature, among others, the riff-fuelled Miesha & The Spanks. Also at ETK, the easternmost Estonian festival Station Narva will unite the East and the West in a showcase that will feature acts from the Russian avant-garde jazz trio Kubikmaggi to the Congolese-British hip-hop poet Blue Saint.

The Black Hall of the Telliskivi venue F-hoone will host three festival nights. The TIKS Rekords label will present a line-up including young Estonian R’n’B star YASMYN, as well as guitarist Joonas Kaarnamets’ new electronic solo project jonas.f.k. The fan merch store 311.ee will showcase Estonian and Latvian indie rock bands Frankie Animal and Carnival Youth. The new record label LAGI will present a two-part showcase of the edgiest sounds from the young Estonian hip hop scene – an afternoon event aimed at young ones, and a night party with no age restrictions. Among others, the LAGI line-up includes the trappy sounds and airy vocals of Manna and the baby-voiced Soundcloud rapper Lil Till.

At the Sveta Bar, GROM, a newcomer on the Estonian festival landscape, will present an assortment of rock with a wide geographic reach. The performers include, among others, the gothic The Pleasure Majenta from New Zealand, and Belgian electro-punk act Camilla Sparksss. Sounds from the world over – from Israeli singer/songwriter Trace Kotik to Egyptian psychedelia project Jayden Oathin – can also be heard at Sveta on the Intsikurmu Festival night.

Manka Boutique festival’s party at the Kivi Paber Käärid (KPK) will present the Russian post-punks Ploho as well as the Estonian-Russian indie supergroup Masha Ye. The party, presented by KPK themselves, will see from dramatic Hungarian rock troubadour The Devil’s Trade, among others.

At Kauplus Aasia, the Sõru Saund festival and IDA Radio will present their selections of avant-garde electronic talents. The Sõru Saund line-up includes Japanese artist Kiki Hitomi, known for her collaboration with King Midas, presenting her new project WaqWaq Kingdom, with Estonian avant-pop maverick Mart Avi also on the bill. The IDA Radio Dance Night will host, among others, Prins Emanuel, the promoter of Intonal Festival, and Margie, a close associate of the iconic Rush Hour.

The festival’s heavier end will also touch down in the Old Town, in Tallinn’s oldest alternative culture club Von Krahl, where TMW 2020’s metal night line-up includes Danish doom-laden brutalists Cabal, and the pioneers of the ‘violent pop’ genre Blind Channel from Finland.

The full TMW 2020 programme, including special events and free city stage gigs, will be revealed during February and March. In addition to the music festival, the TMW 2020 programme includes a two-day conference at the Estonian Academy of Arts, public talks, music-themed workshops for children,  day trips, and city stage concerts in Talliinn’s Lasnamäe district and the city of Paldiski.

TMW 2020 is presented by Telia.

The TMW festival is organised by Shiftworks OÜ, in cooperation with many partners and co-organisers. The TMW 2020 music programme is compiled in collaboration with the agency Damn.Loud. The TMW 2020 conference music industry programme is organised in collaboration with the Estonian music development centre and export office Music Estonia.

One of the main topics for this year’s TMW involves the UN General Assembly’s resolution on the role of culture and creative industries in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In cooperation with the festival’s presenter Telia, the Estonian Academy of Art, and other partners, TMW is joining forces to raise awareness in Estonian society about the Sustainable Development Goals.

The international activities of TMW, aimed at introducing Estonia as an attractive destination for those interested in music and culture, are supported by funds from the European Regional Development Fund.

See all TMW 2020 artists here.