Dutch Creative Industry widely represented at SXSW 2021

Tue, Mar 16 - Sat, Mar 20  2021

New Dutch Wave is bringing a great selection of policymakers, entrepreneurs, and creatives to South By South West

The SXSW festival featuring the interactive, film, and music industry, will take place online this year from 16 to 20 March 2021.

In its SXSW showcase, New Dutch Wave presents a selection of the best Dutch ideas of talented creatives, who make the future better for people and the planet. With its annual participation in SXSW, New Dutch Wave wants to accelerate international cooperation and innovation, whereby the organization catalyzes the connection between artists, designers, media makers, researchers, start-ups, scale-ups, SMEs, corporates, administrators, and investors.

Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, VanMoof, Altin Gün, and Dutch startups on the SXSW stage

On March 18, Mayor Aboutaleb will discuss the energy transition, creativity, and innovation capacity of the City of Rotterdam. Werner Vogels, the Dutch CTO of Amazon, and Taco Carlier of VanMoof are the other Dutch speakers with a featured session at SXSW.

The critically acclaimed Amsterdam-based Anatolian rock and Turkish Psychedelic Folk band Altin Gün, and the Amsterdam bassist and singer-songwriter Nana Adjoa are the artists who have been selected to showcase at the SXSW Music Festival. The performances have been highlighted as recommended programming here.

Altin Gun

Dutch startups Dayrize.com, AlphaBeats, VideoWindoW have been selected for the SXSW Pitch.

In the New Dutch Wave showcase, the following startups, artists, designers, photographers, policymakers, and talents from the creative sector, will participate:

Barbera Wolfensberger – Director-General Culture and Media at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Creative Holland, House of Denim, Niet Normaal, Dutch Design Foundation, Dutch Digital Design, Thijs Biersteker, DuPho, de Melkweg, School of House, Solar Designer Marjan van Aubel, Designer Matilde Boelhouwer, DJ Lady Bee, DJ Jennifer Cooke, The Creative Chef, Eurosonic Noorderslag, Dutch Music Export, Municipality of Amsterdam, Groningen, Rotterdam, Zoku and many more.

New Dutch Wave will also occupy a virtual booth at the SXSW Exhibition, where the top of the global creative world and innovative leaders will converge. NDW offers Dutch participants the opportunity to network and establish new international contacts.

Creativity and collaboration

Barbera Wolfensberger, Director-General Culture, and Media at the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science: “Culture, creativity, and imagination are the basis of people-oriented renewal and innovation. They have an impact on our society. For example, a film with a new story can lead a person to different insights, or on a large scale, the imaginative power of design can lead to a new perspective on a social challenge such as the energy transition. ”

Register Premiere NDW showcase

NDW will broadcast the premiere of its showcase in full, live from the SXSW stage. Interested parties who want to attend the virtual screening can register through the website.

The New Dutch Wave team will organize a Clubhouse session during the launch, “live” from Zoku Amsterdam at 17:00 CET on March 18.

About New Dutch Wave

New Dutch Wave (NDW) presents ambitious Dutch entrepreneurs in the creative sector internationally. They embrace the continuous innovation that has become characteristic of this industry. NDW creates meeting places where entrepreneurs come into contact with like-minded people from all over the world. The organization stems from the creative industry itself. NDW was established in 2016. Every year more than 50 partners join forces to showcase why the Netherlands is in the top ten of the most innovative and creative countries in the world. For more information see: www.newdutchwave.com and www.sxsw.com

Nana Adjoa

Amsterdam-based singer-songwriter Nana Adjoa is a sonic explorer, armed with a deft poeticism and a fierce sense of musicianship. Behind the multi-instrumentalist’s bold approach to songwriting is an unflinching sense of curiosity and an openness to endless possibility. You could say Nana Adjoa is a citizen of the world. She was raised in the Netherlands by her Dutch mother and Ghanaian father, while her music draws on influences beyond her heritage, like her formal jazz training and love of American rock bands. In a recent episode of NPR’s World Cafe, you’ll hear how those influences come together as Adjoa performs songs from her debut full-length, Big Dreaming Ants, and discusses how she discovered her mother’s secret musical history when she first started playing bass guitar.

Altın Gün

The critically acclaimed Amsterdam-based Anatolian rock and Turkish Psychedelic Folk band, Altın Gün, released their third album, Yol, on Glitterbeat Records (Europe) and ATO Records (America).
Amsterdam’s Altin Gün have built a strong reputation for fusing past and present to make brilliantly catchy, upbeat pop music, as seen with their Grammy-nominated second album, Gece. Yol, their third album in as many years, continues that trend; while unveiling a number of sonic surprises.
It should be no surprise to learn that the band again draws from the rich and incredibly diverse traditions of Anatolian and Turkish folk music. But however familiar the story, Yol is not just a record that reframes traditional sounds for a contemporary audience. The album, which often presents a strongly international, poppy sound, also signals a very different approach in making and recording for the band. Singer Merve Dasdemir takes up the story: “We were basically stuck at home for three months making home demos, with everybody adding their parts. The transnational feeling maybe comes from that process of swapping demos over the internet, some of the music we did in the studio, but lockdown meant we had to follow a different approach”

Altın Gün toured globally, including support shows with Tame Impala (USA, October 2019) and were invited by King Gizzard to play their Gizzfest in Australia. The band sold out European and US-clubtours and got airplay on stations across the continent. They were scheduled to play the Coachella and Bonnaroo festivals last year, before the coronavirus pandemic stopped both events and shows got rescheduled to new dates.