More than 60 bold fresh acts from all over Europe will be featured across three winter festival evenings, while the trends and dilemmas in the music industry will be at the forefront of the MENT Conference. The first announced key speakers are Helen Smith, Executive Chair of IMPALA, the Independent Music Companies Association, and Seymour Stein, a Vice President of Warner Bros. Records and the cofounder of Sire Records, for which he signed the Ramones and Madonna, among others.

MENT Ljubljana is announcing the first 29 performers from no fewer than 18 countries. The dub-charged folk tunes of two-piece Darla Smoking, the avant-garde pop trio Kukushai, the dreamy Neomi, the Novo mesto rockers MRFY, the electronic duo FFX and the dancefloor-friendly YGT represent the Slovenian selection of the first festival announcement. Out of the ex-Yu region, we’re showcasing Croatian trap lords High 5, live jazz of the best kind Chui, the heavy riffs of Cojones, the blend of expressive Serbian rock ‘n’ roll and West African rhythm Igralom, and the psychedelic Dogs in Kavala, the latest acquisition out of the Belgrade talent hatchery BIGZ.

The flagbearers of Austrian prog-rock Mother’s Cake, the post-RnB of the co-author of likely one of the best German rap records of the decade Wandl and the shoegazing Czechs Manon Meurt will show us what’s new in the Central and Eastern European region. They’ll be joined by Romanian duo Karpov not Kasparov, whose debut Soundtrack for a Game of Chess was praised by Vice Magazine. Scandinavia will be represented by Úlfur Úlfur, the top dogs of Icelandic hip-hop, and Greenland’s fairy-tale ensemble Nive and the Deer Children.

Who else shouldn’t you miss at your favourite winter festival? Check at www.ment.si.