BABEL MUSIC XP positions Marseille as an economic and cultural epicenter for today’s world music.
With its professional trade fair at the Friche La Belle de Mai and its concerts throughout the city of Marseille, BABEL MUSIC XP stands as a Mediterranean hub on the global music map.
An international event serving the common good, contributing to the revival of a music sector facing new challenges, bringing together, exchanging, and sharing among the industry’s various stakeholders, stimulating the economy of a rapidly evolving ecosystem, and capturing the pulse of global musical creation.
A LEGACY: BABEL MED MUSIC (2005–2017)
From 2005 to 2017, with 14 editions, Babel Med Music established itself in the international professional calendar as a major forum for world music.
THE BEGINNINGS: BEFORE BABEL MUSIC XP (2020)
As a prefiguration of Babel Music XP, the Before BMXP took place on November 26 and 27, 2020.
Initially planned as an in-person event, it was transformed—due to COVID restrictions—into a digital and interactive format, with the creation of an online platform that brought together 1,000 music industry professionals who connected to attend and respond to 13 professional meetings featuring 65 international speakers and 5 thematic tracks.
These round tables addressed new forms of cooperation, networks, funding, economic recovery, international mobility, territorial issues, and the societal concerns affecting the world of live performance.
Highly praised by professionals across the sector, this event succeeded in uniting and maintaining the essential connection between the industry’s various stakeholders during a challenging period for the entire field.
THE RENAISSANCE: BABEL MUSIC XP (2023)
Babel Music XP was reborn in 2023 with a new approach, once again combining an international professional trade fair during the day at La Friche La Belle de Mai with a showcase festival in the evening at the Dock des Suds.
A flagship event for the music ecosystem, focused on live performance, aligned with evolving audiences and practices, at the crossroads of aesthetics and advocating artistic diversity, Babel Music XP now speaks to the stakeholders of a musical ecosystem that spans contemporary world music, traditional music, and jazz.
