The FOCUS Wales conference is back for its 15th edition, taking place across 8th – 10th May 2024, in Wrexham, Wales. Supported by the Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government, and PRS Foundation’s Talent Development Network, FOCUS Wales continues to champion emerging talent while connecting local and global audiences.The conference is an internationally recognised global meeting point, providing an environment to open up important conversations and developmental discussions in the music industry. The event provides vital networking opportunities for hundreds of Welsh professionals, as well as international industry delegates and artists across a wide range of musical genres and backgrounds.
This year’s conference will have an overarching theme of A Healthier Future for Music, exploring the wellbeing of performers and industry, as well as the health of venues, revenue streams, and having a more equitable industry. Following on from 2024’s theme of shaping the future of the music industry, this year will be used to dive deeper into how best practices can be implemented for the music industry to have a positive impact on making the world a healthier place.
Sarah Jones, Director and Conference Co-Programmer at FOCUS Wales said: “It’s important to us to explore the theme of health in a broad and holistic way, addressing the industry as a whole. Something we want to discover through discussions this year is how we can work together to shape the industry to work around people’s lives, rather than people having to work around the industry.”
The 2025 FOCUS Wales music conference will see industry delegates, artists and expert speakers from around the world, accessing over 40 panel discussions and q&a’s, and 100+ bespoke networking events across the 3 days; kicking off on Thursday morning with a keynote presentation from Neil Ingham, Executive Director of Samaritans Wales.
This year’s delegate list already includes representatives from Roskilde Festival, Iceland Airwaves, Glastonbury, Trans Musicales, End of The Road, Futuresound, Crosstown Concerts, DHP Family, DMZ Peace Train Festival, Runway Artists, Playbook Artists, Progressive Artists, and Marshall, as well as organisations such as British Council, Musicians’ Union, PPL, PRS Foundation, PRS for Music, and Live. The conference panel programme and speakers will begin to be announced from February.
Delegate Passes are on sale now via focuswales.com, and enable access to all conference events, private networking, pre-festival showcase, online delegate database, and all live shows with priority access.
The FOCUS Wales conference is also accessible with any full weekend, or day pass.
