The Sicily Music Conference (SMC) is back next week, and it’s not here to dazzle with red carpets or empty slogans. Running from 14 to 17 May across Palermo and Catania, its fourth edition digs into what a music industry event can really be when it’s shaped by place, people, and purpose. No gloss, no glossaries—just real conversations, sharp ideas, and artists who live the realities most conferences smooth over. At its heart: independent voices, regional dynamics, and cross-border collaboration, all grounded in the everyday pulse of Sicily and the wider Mediterranean.

In a global music landscape still centred on Anglo-American markets and algorithmic trends, SMC follows a different rhythm. Since its inception, the conference has been anchored in Sicily’s geography and layered history, treating the island not as a picturesque backdrop but as a framework for cultural exchange. It brings together musicians, producers, organisers, and cultural workers from Southern Europe and across the Mediterranean to share ideas, skills, and strategies. Sicily becomes a site of connection: textured, collaborative, and shaped by long-standing—often overlooked—transnational networks.

This year’s programme builds on that foundation with a combination of panels, workshops, performances, and community projects. Rather than following familiar templates, it focuses on the practical and creative challenges facing those working in independent music today, offering space to think, collaborate, and build.

The opening days in Palermo are anchored at Cre.Zi Plus and Teatro Garibaldi—venues long connected to progressive civic and artistic work. A series of talks and workshops kicks off on Wednesday 14 May with La Musica è un Lavoro, a session on booking led by Stefano Brambilla of Shine Production. That same afternoon, conversations turn toward digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and how music careers are built across geographic and cultural borders. Industry figures from Amazon, Musicalista, and Athens Music Week will join local actors to explore tools for reaching new audiences and navigating changing infrastructures.

Evenings are dedicated to live performance. The opening night is split across two venues. At Cre.Zi. Plus from 7PM, acquachiara, a rising voice in socially conscious pop and recent winner of the Music for Change award, performs alongside Misha the Beast, known for his loop-based sets combining saxophone, percussion and raw physicality.

Later that night, from 10PM at I Candelai, the energy shifts. Mac Tire brings sharp-edged electronics and urgent textures, setting the tone for a powerful run of live sets. AYOM, the Italo-Brazilian collective, follow with their unmistakable blend of Afro-Lusophone rhythms, Mediterranean grooves and politically charged storytelling. Afrodelic, led by Lithuanian-Malian artist Victor Diawara, expands the soundscape further, layering Malian guitar with afro-funk pulses and subtle electronics. Badfocus closes with a set of reflective, ambient compositions shaped by glitch detail and understated rhythm, bringing a quiet tension that contrasts with the energy earlier in the night. Originally from Prague, his sound bridges digital precision and emotive depth, drawing from both club culture and headphone intimacy.

Thursday 15 May continues at Cre.Zi Plus with a focus on the work behind the music. The day begins with a workshop on promotion, led by Cocchi Ballaira, Damir Ivic, and Gabriele Lo Piccolo, exploring how press, storytelling, and strategy shape an artist’s visibility. In the afternoon, Fenoaltea of Bomba Dischi joins Pisk and Ivic for a session on artistic production, covering everything from sonic identity to recording, mixing, and the producer’s evolving role.

A panel on music and territorial promotion follows, asking how festivals and cultural events can support development in peripheral and rural areas. The day ends with a discussion on music export, featuring voices from Music Cities Network, Tallinn Music Week, and I Candelai, looking at how local scenes connect with international circuits—and what Palermo might learn from places like Groningen.

That evening, the stage at Teatro Garibaldi hosts a more eclectic mix. Soul Rolled Fox, originally from Palermo and now based in Milan, brings a blend of acoustic storytelling and jazz-tinged arrangements, moving between English and Italian lyrics. Magikaarp adds a layer of hazy, dream-pop introspection, while Estonian artist Kitty Florentine offers an immersive performance steeped in brooding synth textures and theatrical flair. Closing the night, Absolight from Quebec deliver a tight, cinematic brand of alt-rock that draws on grunge with sharp-edged precision.

By Friday, the conference moves east to Catania. At Ex Empire—Casa della Musica—discussions pick up around promotion, accessibility, music export, and mental health. One session, hosted by KeepOn Live, BAM! Strategie Culturali, and Le Ragazze Terribili, focuses on how concerts can be designed to welcome broader and more diverse audiences. Another, led by Lena Ingwersen of Music Cities Network and Ella Overkleeft, looks at how confiscated spaces—especially those taken from criminal networks—can be reclaimed for music and culture.

A parallel track continues at MONO with the second edition of SMC’s 10×10 Mentor Corner, where attendees can book ten-minute one-on-one sessions with professionals from across the industry—festival directors, music producers, booking agents, mental health advocates, and export specialists.

Alongside the daytime sessions, the evening programme continues to broaden the musical conversation. Luca Land brings emotionally resonant electro-pop with a strong narrative current. Salba pares things back with minimal arrangements and pointed, unadorned lyrics. Angelo Sicurella, a defining voice in Sicily’s experimental scene, blends electronics, spoken word and song into a set that resists easy categorisation. Kitty Florentine and Badfocus return to the stage in collaboration, combining ambient electronics, glitch textures, and immersive vocals into a richly atmospheric performance.

The final day of the conference opens with a midday DJ set by Rob da Bank and Steve Budd at Discomercato/Easy Mercato, setting a lighter, more communal tone. From there, the focus shifts to workshops and talks on festival mapping, artistic residencies, and cultural strategy—drawing on voices from Glastonbury, Goulash Disco, Mercati Generali, and others working at the intersection of music and place. Festival mapping in particular has been a key part of SMC’s work over the past year, with more than 50 Sicilian festivals now identified as part of an effort to understand and strengthen the region’s cultural infrastructure.

The closing night showcases are split between Tinni Tinni Arts Club and Gammazita. At the former, LeCORDEinARIA rework traditional Sicilian vocal forms into raw, contemporary a cappella. At the latter, The Hyblaeans channel psych-rock and folk motifs into an upbeat, high-energy set, before Afrodelic returns to bring the long weekend to a close on a rhythm-forward, expansive note.

These showcases are integral to SMC’s mission. They open up space for genuine exchange, where artists engage not only with audiences but also with peers, curators, programmers and future collaborators. The emphasis is on musicians navigating multiple intersections—across genre, language and infrastructure—often operating without the backing or exposure that major industry hubs typically provide.

But the conference doesn’t end with the final performance. SMC continues year-round through education and outreach, working with schools, universities and community groups to foster cultural engagement at a grassroots level, building long-term support for independent creative practice.

What defines SMC is its commitment to place: not as a postcard image, but as a structure for action. The programme emerges from the island’s particular realities: its cultural resources, social fabric and role within broader Mediterranean flows. Many participants work in comparable contexts, and bring with them common questions around access, policy, sustainability and the everyday conditions of creative work: questions that are addressed through open, practice-based dialogue.

In contrast to industry gatherings built around branding and buzzwords, Sicily Music Conference offers something more grounded. It’s local, adaptive, and intentional. For those interested in how music is created and sustained outside dominant centres, it’s a space that invites close attention.

Time to pack your bags... Sicily Music Conference is just one week away!
You can find all the details and the full programme HERE