The music and city festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW) appoints Pärtel Soosalu as the Head of Festival. In the open competition, 65 candidates applied for the position.
Pärtel Soosalu is an experienced events manager and team leader. He has studied culture management at the Viljandi Culture Academy and has actively worked in the field, organising various festivals and public events for over ten years. His previous work includes project management at the street festival Uue Maailma Tänavafestival, and Spacex Event Center as the operations and administrative manager. Before joining the TMW team, Soosalu was the CEO and producer of one of Estonia’s leading event marketing companies Event Masters, where among other tasks he also developed environmentally friendly event promotion strategies. Soosalu has also participated in TMW work in previous years, as a volunteer as well as a city festival project manager in 2017 – 2018.
“TMW’s strength lies in the thoroughly considered and clearly worded mission and values,“ says Soosalu. “These are not just words on a website, but ideas that live in the actions of every person connected to the festival. A large part of my focus will be directed at finding sustainable solutions that would allow the festival to leave as little of a footprint as possible, while making no concessions on quality,” he adds.
Soosalu will gradually take over the duties of heading the TMW festival and will also contribute to other initiatives of Shiftworks, from the Station Narva festival to event management and various service projects.
TMW founder and head of Shiftworks Helen Sildna will continue to contribute to work with TMW on a strategic level and focus on the integral development of the Shiftworks company. According to Sildna, the search for the Head of Festival was a highly competitive one and the candidates included competent leaders from Estonia, as well as high level specialists on the international scale. “A decisive factor in the choice was Pärtel’s clear vision, which included guiding the festival further towards a green turn and sustainable thinking. His strengths included his thorough experience in the events sector as well as leading diverse teams. We already know Pärtel’s hard working nature, his enthusiasm and “Let’s do it!” approach. We will now take our collaboration to the next level.”
TMW is one of Europe’s leading new music and city festivals, and an important networking event for music and creative industry professionals. The festival consists of three main programme elements: a music festival, a city festival and a conference.
TMW festival is founded and run by Shiftworks OÜ. Taking place on 6 – 9 May, TMW 2021 is presented by Telia Estonia, the festival’s strategic partner is the music industry development centre and export office Music Estonia.
TMW 2021 passes are on sale at shop.tmw.ee. Until 28 February, the Festival Pass at 55 euros and PRO Pass at 150 euros are available along with DigiPRO Pass at 50 euros and Supporter Pass at 225 euros, which allows supporting the festival organisation and getting an inside look. Telia clients receive 20% off the price of passes purchased ahead of the event.
Pärtel Soosalu. Photo by Margus Johanson www.flickr.com/photos/tallinnmusicweek/50904299036