ESNS 2025: An eclectic celebration of underground European talent

We’ve heard of the phrase ‘come hell or high water’, but this year a whole host of international artists overcame blankets of freezing fog to make it to ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag) 2025 - the Dutch showcase festival whose community and heart makes any such elemental challenges entirely worthwhile. Here are our highlights…

Raising the curtain on ESNS’ 39th iteration, the European Festival Awards are an apt way to start these jam-packed few days: honouring the events and individuals that made 2024 a powerhouse year in live music, the evening also looks ahead, with performances from neo-soul duo MRCY, popstar-in-waiting Alessi Rose, and German synth sensations Zimmer90 proving that the lineups of tomorrow are in more than capable hands.

And in terms of fail-safe festival perfection, you need look no further than Manchester’s Antony Szmierek. Giving a tongue-in-cheek nod to the number of industry professionals present (“I don’t care who you work for, I don’t care if you’re on a work trip - put your hands up”), he works the Oosterport’s amphitheatre-like stage like a seasoned pro, teasing an initially slightly static crowd out of their shells until there’s not a soul who’s not joyously two-stepping to the grooving bassline of ‘Yoga Teacher’. The ability to make an audience feel entirely at ease - with the performance, with their peers, with themselves - is a rare skill, but it’s one he has in abundance.

Ebbb, meanwhile, are captivating in an entirely different way. Combining quasi-choral vocals with bone-rattling live drums and immersive production - topped off by a strobing light show fit for a rave - the British trio deliver a set that is at once urgent and strangely evangelical, proving themselves to be truly one of the most interesting live acts the UK has to offer.

But, as a cursory wander around Groningen will demonstrate, ESNS is about far more than its billed artists - more than its official venues, even. Bands like Dutch outfit MATOYA can be found playing, mannequin-style, in shoe shop windows, while the winding corridors and back staircases of mammoth pub De Drie Gezusters (the biggest boozer in Europe, no less!) reward punters with vibrant pockets of local talent.

Back on the beaten track, it’s Malaysian-born, UK-based Chloe Qisha who emerges as the festival’s most exciting pop newcomer, thanks to her magpie-like approach of collecting shiny, disparate stylistic nods - her David Byrne-esque suit, say, or her stomping cover of Lipps Inc.’s ‘Funkytown’ - and combining them into one cohesive, winningly confident package. Pulling as much from ‘80s new wave and ‘00s pop-punk as she does contemporary chart-toppers, she already has the air of a fully-formed artist - one who, on this evidence, is well on her way to something huge.

Grassroots venue VERA is perhaps the city’s most storied stage, and ESNS 2025 offers up more than a few contenders for the ticker-tape list of bands plastered across the main room’s walls. Take Bulgarian outfit Woomb, who emerge shrouded in fog, the tendrils of their atmospheric shoegaze pulling everything from eerie electronica to jangly guitars into their enigmatic fold. Or Icelandic quartet Supersport!, whose wares land somewhere between the harmonic folk of fellow exclaimers Tapir! and the kind of peppy indie-pop beloved by ‘00s sitcom soundtracks - a bizarre proposition on paper, perhaps, but one the VERA crowd embrace with open arms.

Walking into Groningen’s Stadsschouwburg (City Theatre, to you and me), it quickly becomes apparent that there’s no venue in the city better suited to Luvcat. All plush red velvet and opulent details, the building’s inherent drama provides the ideal backdrop to her sultry tales of romance and rogues, which she proceeds to regale with seemingly effortless charm (despite the fact, we’re told, that her taxi from the airport arrived not five minutes before).

Swapping the theatre’s expansive beauty for the intimate confines of a Lutheran church, it’s Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Alon’s set that is, for us, the festival’s standout. The friendly bartender telling patrons to “have a nice service”; the mahogany pulpit backgrounding the barely-raised stage; the (obviously) stunning acoustics: everything conspires to make this the perfect locale for Jacob’s hauntingly beautiful offerings, their simultaneous deftness and delicacy recalling Jeff Buckley, or Laura Marling at her most raw. Interspersing their accounts of heartbreak and queer acceptance with wit and warmth (“now for a song about poppers”, they quip while tuning their guitar by ear), Jacob performs with a reverence that - ecclesiastical setting aside - feels genuinely spiritual.

It’s the kind of flagship artistic moment you don’t come across often, but which ESNS - next year celebrating its 40th anniversary - has built a well-deserved reputation for fostering.