Emilia-Romagna Music Export at MENT Ljubljana 2026

From 18 to 21 February, Emilia-Romagna Music Export will take part in MENT Ljubljana – Festival & Conference, one of Europe’s leading events for music discovery and networking within the independent music sector.

MENT Ljubljana is a music discovery festival that combines an extensive live programme with an international conference dedicated to the music industry and creativity. The festival features emerging artists from across Europe, presenting them to an international audience of professionals and music lovers. The conference brings together festival organisers, promoters, booking agents, managers, journalists, record labels and representatives of international networks, confirming its role as a key space for dialogue and the development of new professional networks.

As part of MENT, Emilia-Romagna Music Export will be involved in a networking event together with the Emilia-Romagna delegation and the Puglia delegation, the project’s partner region.

Networking Session – Meet the Puglia and Emilia-Romagna Music Scenes
Friday, 20 February 2026, 10:30 AM
M Hotel – Hound Dog

Organised in collaboration with Puglia Sounds (a programme by Puglia Culture), the session is conceived as an opportunity for exchange and discussion among music professionals from the two Italian regions. Festival organisers, promoters, booking agents, record label representatives and other industry professionals will take part, with the aim of fostering new international connections and the exchange of best practices.

Participation in MENT Ljubljana represents a further step in Emilia-Romagna Music Export’s path towards strengthening the presence of Emilia-Romagna within major European contexts dedicated to live music and the contemporary music industry.

The Emilia-Romagna delegation will include:

• Estragon Società Cooperativa
• Panico srl
• Associazione ARCI Comitato Territoriale di Reggio Emilia APS
• Associazione Culturale RetroPop Live
• Associazione Culturale Bronson APS
• Sigla Eventi // Godot APS
• Shape APS
• Arci Emilia-Romagna APS
• Ozono Factory A.p.s.
• Fondazione Campori
• Emilia-Romagna Music Commission
• ATER Fondazione

The Puglia delegation will include:

• Mosho
• Ipe Ipe
• L’Alternativa
• Altrementi
• Sudsonico
• Faro Records
• Puglia Sounds

Gaia Banfi showcase
For the festival’s official programme, MENT Ljubljana has also selected an Emilia-Romagna artist based in Bologna.

Gaia Banfi
Electronic / Experimental / Pop
Thursday, 19 February, 9:00–9:40 PM
Stara mestna elektrarna

Singer, songwriter, musician and producer, Gaia Banfi develops an artistic research deeply rooted in experimentation, blending songwriting, tradition and contemporary electronic music. Her airy and layered vocal textures interact with acoustic elements, electronic influences and distorted sounds, treating the voice as an integral part of the composition and often pushing its expressive limits. A graduate in jazz singing, she released her debut album Lotus in 2020 and has carried out an intense live activity across Italy in recent years. Her second album La Maccaia was released by Trovarobato in 2025.

After an extensive tour in Italy and France and appearances at some of Europe’s most important showcase festivals – Reeperbahn, Trans Musicales and ESNS – Gaia is now ready to captivate both audiences and professionals at MENT, the leading showcase festival for Eastern Europe, a musically vibrant area connecting the Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian scenes, as well as those of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

Follow Gaia Banfi on: Instagram – Spotify – Music Apple – bandcamp

Emilia-Romagna Music Export is the internationalisation activity for the Emilia-Romagna music ecosystem promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Music Commission in collaboration with ATER Fondazione, with the aim of supporting the international visibility of artists, professionals and organisations from the region and fostering new opportunities for exchange and collaboration.