XA – Export Award
The award was initiated by Waves Festival in 2017 and is a cooperation between mica – music austria, Austrian Music Export, Austro Mechana/SKE Fonds, Radio FM4 and Waves Festival.
The aim is to support Austrian artists at an early stage of their career and help them after establishing a national basis to make the step out of Austria to an international level.
From 2019 on several acts from the long list of Austrian artists performing at the Waves Festival are selected by a jury of experts to be nominees of the XA.
International and national promoters, bookers and music journalists are invited to Waves Festival and will judge the performance of the nominees during the festival in Vienna.
The winner of the XA receives 3.500 Euro as well as the promise of support from Austrian Music Export, FM4 and Waves Festival for the following year, including integration at partner-festivals and showcases. In addition the act gets from the Ministry of Culture and the Austria Music Export a travel cost funding of 5.000 Euros.
