ESNS 2026 - Groningen, 14 - 17 januari 2026 – ESNS viert 40 jaar – Winners of the European Festival Awards 2025

WINNERS OF THE EUROPEAN FESTIVAL AWARDS 2025
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2025 European Festival Awards. For this year, festivals from over 30 countries participated and 300,000 single votes have been cast by the public. This resulted in 104 shortlisted nominees in 13 distinct categories, not counting the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Here are all winners of the European Festival Awards 2025.
The Take a Stand Award
Presented by: Take A Stand
Sziget Festival (Hungary)

Line-Up of the Year
Presented by: IQ Magazine
Lowlands (The Netherlands)

The Event Safety Award
Presented by: Citymesh & YES Group
Rock for People (Czech Republic)

Agent of the Year
Steve Zapp (ITB)

Best Small Festival
Dynamo Metalfest (The Netherlands)

Newcomer of the Year
Presented by: ESNS
Addison Rae (USA)

The Brand Activation Award
Pinkpop with Libresse (The Netherlands)

Best Medium-Sized Festival
Presented by: Access All Areas
Pohoda Festival (Slovakia)

The Green Operations Award
Presented by: GO Group
Štěrkovna Open Music (Czech Republic)

Best Major Festival
Presented by: Eventim
Paléo Festival Nyon (Switzerland)

The Award for Excellence & Passion
Stephan Thanscheidt, FKP Scorpio (Germany)

Promoter of the Year
presented by: Pollstar
Exit Festival (Serbia)

New Kid on the Block
Kristína Mlynárová, Pohoda Festival (Slovakia)

The Lifetime Achievement Award
Ewald Tatar (Austria)

The awards ceremony took place on the opening night of ESNS, in Groningen, The Netherlands and was hosted by IQ journalist, Lisa Henderson and A Greener Future CEO Claire O’Neill.

The European Festival Awards team would like to extend a huge thank you to all of those who participated in and attended the European Festival Awards 2025. A special thank you to their presenting partner Eventim, the European Union for the support via YOUROPE’s 3F project, ESNS, Citymesh and media partners IQ Magazine, Pollstar and Access all Areas as well as all of the European Festival Awards partners including all supporters and members of the jury.

See you next year for the Awards 16th edition!

www.esns.nl