Urban City Volume is the name of the initiative that in 2022 will take place in continuation of the annual SPOT Festival in Aarhus. Urban City Volume is a full-day event that among others will present a programme including a debate, a producer camp and a showcase. The aim of the initiative is to bring focus on the development of the urban genre in Denmark:

 “Urban music has become modern pop music. It is the most important genre within today’s youth culture. It is therefore essential to address the genre at the annual music industry festival for new upcoming music in Aarhus,” says Albert Helmig, manager of Aarhus Volume and booker at SPOT Festival.

“SPOT perceives it as their natural purpose continuously to contribute to new artistic areas and initiatives getting the focus and the support they need,” expresses the manager of SPOT Festival, Gunnar K. Madsen.   

Operators within the more established genres often use educational institutions, music organisations and traditional venues as a starting point for their musical education and activity but the urban music community is rather fragmented and characterised by a strong “do-it-yourself” mentality,” elaborates Albert Helmig.

“The urban community does not necessarily perceive themselves as a part of the established cultural institutions. As an industry organisation we must embrace that fact, which we seek to do with Urban City Volume,” says manager of Promus, Jesper Mardahl.

“Aarhus Calling is looking forward to working with some of the greatest talents within the urban and hip hop genre,” says Rewan Riko, songwriter, producer and manager of Aarhus Calling.

Urban City Volume 2022 is presented in close cooperation with SPOT Festival, Promus, Aarhus Calling and Aarhus Volume.    

ABOUT MUSIC CITY AARHUS 2022

Music City Aarhus 2022 is dedicated to restart musical life, to bridge the gap between cultural and business life and to unify the citizens of Aarhus around music. Music City Aarhus 2022 is a part of the culture politics of Aarhus Municipality 2021-2024 and carries the vision to strengthen the cultural growth segment, talent development and partnerships among established operators in the city. Furthermore the project works to support the development of distinctive music events in collaboration with the business community, established culture institutions and artists.

ABOUT PROMUS

PROMUS (Production center of Rhythmic Music in Aarhus) is an organisation that seeks to strengthen and prepare music operators to the challenges they will face in the music business. PROMUS unifies knowledge and innovation from the aarhusian music community and furthermore works with the city’s growth segment and networking among operators. PROMUS offers counselling and competent feedback to music operators, for instance through their mentoring scheme where new operators collaborate with more established operators. In addition PROMUS offers office spaces and arrange courses, presentations and debates regarding current topics within the music business.    

ABOUT AARHUS CITY VOLUME

Aarhus Volume is an association consisting of young entrepreneurs who gather around arranging a type of events that they experienced Aarhus city life was short on. As their main event the association presents the street celebration “UnderGaden” which takes place at Godsbanen in Aarhus, where the association furthermore holds office in “A-huset”.  

ABOUT SPOT FESTIVAL

SPOT Festival is an international two-day music festival that focuses on new and upcoming artists from the Danish music scene. SPOT Festival presents two seperate tracks; SPOT concerts and SPOT + and has become the platform for new danish music production for knowledge sharing and music export since 1994. SPOT is the second-oldest showcase festival in Europe and annually attracts professional business and press operators from around the world in collaboration with MXD-Music Export Denmark. Where the SPOT festival’s annual music program is open for public audiences, SPOT + is an offer pointing at the industry community with specialised talks, debates, presentations and much more. SPOT+ is arranged in close collaboration with PROMUS.