Holger Jan Schmidt is one of Europe’s leading networkers in the music festival branch. Holger is General Secretary of YOUROPE – the European Festival Association, the most important representation of European popular music festivals with more than 130 members from 31 European countries. Among various topics he has a special focus on sustainability and social responsibility for festivals and events. This a part of his duties is the project management of the international Take A Stand initiative and campaign for the (live) music sector, which was launched in 2017 to create a movement encouraging social cohesion in our society as well as promoting awareness and tolerance. He also leads the pan-European think-tank GO Group (Green Operations Europe) that focuses on sustainability related and environmental issues at events.
Holger looks back at 30 years working at festivals including the legendary RhEINKULTUR and Bizarre Festival, as well as Superbloom Festival in Munich in recent years. Today Holger is a booker, consultant and part of the management teams of DAS FEST in Karlsruhe.
In early 2023 Holger was awarded with the two most prestigious award he could imagine. Holger was honored with the “Award for Excellence & Passion” for his services to the European music festival sector at the European Festival Awards (EFA) during ESNS in Groningen. This was followed by the Arthur Award “The Unsung Hero” from the International Live Music Conference (ILMC) in London in the category “Industry Champion Award”. Both awards were voted for by a panels of international festival managers and music sector representatives.
Holger is contributing his expertise to various European funded projects such as “3F – Future-Fit Festivals” (Creative Europe), “FUSION – Festivals as social innovation incubators” (Erasmus+), “FUTURE FESTIVAL TOOLS – green competency for event professionals” (Erasmus+), “GEX – Green Europe Experience” (Creative Europe) and “EVERYWH2ERE” – bringing mobile hydrogen energy to festivals (HORIZON 2020). He is co-author of the book „stay SOUND & CHECK yourself“ dealing with stress and mental health in the live music, festival and event industry and co-wrote the „Sounds For Nature guidelines for environmentally friendly events“.
Holger holds a diploma in media economics from Rheinische Fachhochschule Cologne and was a lecturer for “Sustainable Festival- and Event Management” at Hochschule Fresenius (Fresenius University of Applied Sciences) in Cologne and Düsseldorf. Also he is an active musician himself.
