STA, 30 January 2019 - Ment Ljubljana, a three-day tour de force featuring some of the most promising acts of Europe's independent music scene, gets under way in the capital tonight. As many as 75 up-and-coming acts will perform at multiple venues, while the conference segment of the festival holds a lot of promise as well.
The fifth edition of the showcase festival will kick off with a programme-packed night at Kino Šiška, an expected highlight being the concert by Iranian-Dutch performer Sevdaliza, whose debut album has has won her widespread acclaim.
Ment will expand to a total of nine venues in the city on Thursday and Friday, an element that has helped it create quite a splash in the capital in the past years.
The venues include multiple clubs at the Metelkova Mesto alternative arts centre, Orto Bar, the Old Power Plant and K4.
MENT has arranged a 68-track video playlist to show you the artists in action, which starts autoplaying above
What the organisers labelled the "winter festival of music creativity" also provides a welcome promotional platform for Slovenian acts and DJs, with as many as 21 featured this year.
The list includes the "dream trip-hoppers" JUNEsHELEN, electro rockers Kontradikshn, the Canyon Observer, labelled as doom and black metal, and the experimental electro act Warrego Valles.
Ment also invests a lot of effort in providing networking opportunities and in the conference segment of the festival.
The schedule includes a panel entitled How to Escape the Showcase Bubble, which will question the role of showcase festivals, their many focuses, and especially the role of creators in this increasingly popular event discipline.
The full schedule can be found here, while all the details of all the artists can be found here, with videos just another click or tap away. The festival is also on Facebook, and has both Android and IoS apps
