Aperitiv

Here are the results of the international competition Blues Aperitiv 2023

The international jury of Blues Aperitiv consisting of Ondřej Bezr (dramaturg of Blues Alive), Davide Grandi (president of the European Blues Union), Daniel Salontay (musician, Longital), Milan Tesar (editor of Radio Proglas) and Dany Stejskal (publisher of the music monthly Headliner) noted the high level of all the contestants and chose two of the three winners.

This time the jury award went to the Czech bands Cold Licks and Readymade Backsliders, both of which are mainly based on original blues-rock repertoire. The Audience Award went to the representatives of Poland, the Cracow band Dark Leaves, relying on dynamic, mostly acoustic expression. The musicianship level of all the participating bands was indiscriminately excellent this year and all of them could have advanced. We will meet the three winning bands on 16-18 November at the Blues Alive 2023 International Festival. Blues Aperitiv also set an all-time attendance record and we are delighted that the competition is enjoying full health.

 

Seven talented bands from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will play in the finals of the Blues Aperitiv competition on 15 April 2023 in Šumperk

Seven bands have been selected by an expert jury for the final of the Blues Aperitiv competition, which will take place on 15th April 2023 at the House of Culture in Šumperk. The bands Amiya (Poland), Back To Roots (Czech Republic), Cold Licks (Czech Republic), Dark Leaves (Poland), Her Memories (Slovakia), Kiero Grande (Slovakia) and Readymade Backsliders (Czech Republic) will perform live.

From this final night, two winners will go on to Blues Alive 2023, which takes place this year from 16-18 November. The performer who receives the most votes from the audience will also get the chance to go to the festival.

As every year, Czechs, Slovaks and Poles predominated among the entries. “This year, however, the English, Belgians, Romanians and Hungarians were also among those interested in making it to the final. This means that the awareness of Blues Aperitiv is growing,” says Ondřej Bezr, the chairman of the jury. In terms of style, various modifications of blues rock prevail among the bands, while orthodox efforts to replicate classic American models are on the wane, and hand in hand with this, their own original creations are pleasingly gaining the upper hand over the adoption of blues standards.

For the first time ever, the jury of the Blues Aperitiv finals will consist of five members. The festival’s program director Ondřej Bezr will be the chairman, together with him the bands will be evaluated by the music publicist and radio editor Milan Tesar, the publisher of the music magazine Headliner Dany Stejskal, the musician, member of the Slovak band Longital Daniel Salontay and a very special guest of the festival who will sit on the jury will be the Italian blues expert and president of the European Blues Union Davide Grandi.

The Blues Aperitiv music competition for new blues and blues-based talents is organized by the international Blues Alive festival in Šumperk in cooperation with the Czech Blues Union.

Here are the results of the international competition Blues Aperitiv 2022. Congratulations.

The following acts are advancing to the lineup of Blues Alive Festival (Šumperk 17.- 19.11.2022):
Black Pin (PL)
Steven´s (CZ)
Audience Award:
Dazed and Confused (CZ)

Steven´s (CZ) are advancing to the lineup of Blues Alive Poland (Chorzów 20.11.2022).
The following artists have been promoted to the summer stage of Blues Alive at the Boskovice Festival and Front Porch Blues:
Steven´s (CZ)

Calls for submissions for Blues Aperitiv 2022

Blues Aperitiv is a contest for blues musicians organized by international Blues Alive Festival taking place in Šumperk, Czech Republic. The contest is open to all music acts regardless their country of origin. The deadline for submissions is March 15th, 2022.

Winners of the competition will have a unique chance to perform at Blues Alive Festival in mid November. Out of all submitted applications an international jury will select 7 best acts which will qualify to perform live at the final Blues Aperitiv concert in front of jury and audience at House of Culture in Šumperk on April 23rd, 2022. Chairman of the international jury is Ondrej Bezr, program director of Blues Alive Festival.

Two winners of the April contest will receive slots at 26th edition of Blues Alive Festival taking place between November 17th and 19th, 2022.

Conditions for entries to the Blues Aperitiv contest:

– Artists interested in participating at the contest must apply by email to Michaela Horakova at horakova@dksumperk.cz
– deadline for submissions is March 15th, 2022
– The application must include artist name, band lineup, technical rider, facebook and www links, high resolution photo, a brief biography, and a reliable phone and email contact.
– Application must include current artist recording in digital format. Please send at least 3 songs in mp3 format or a link to a digital player such as Bandcamp or YouTube by email to the above address (please do NOT send links to streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, etc.).
– Competition is open to solo artists and bands regardless their country of origin. Previous participants of Blues Aperitiv are also welcome.