Here we are at the end of another season. Time for vacation, but also, and most importantly, time for a heads up on what’s happened and what seeds have been planted for the future. First off, a few figures. The year 2003 has broken the records: 3,246 bands participated in the festival, including over 18,000 musicians who gave performances on 1,247 different concert nights organized in over 50 cities large and small throughout Europe and Canada, with 874,324 spectators in attendance. Really, whoever thinks that live music is dead should quickly throw that idea out the window. Cities like Paris with 270 bands (the highest participation from any single city), Berlin, Toronto, and London are by now a solid reality, but to complete the picture, it is worth pointing out the incredible vitality in areas such as Turin and Barcelona where they really step up to the plate in the emerging musical scene. In particular, the French-Canadian area of Montreal is also worth mentioning, as today it is the second largest worldwide point for the festival, just behind Paris. Just as France, Canada, and Spain have beaten all previous records for band and audience participation, northern Europe have also done their fair share. By now the festival is present in every nook and cranny in Germany, and likewise in Italy, the festival is held in a number of provincial areas and in small clubs so that these areas are really giving the more experienced cities (Monaco, Hamburg, Cologne, Dortmund, and the above mentioned Berlin among others) a run for their money, and this also guarantees the musicians who don’t live in a large metropolis the opportunity for a first-rate onstage performance. Scandinavia has done a great job, where for the third year running they have had great artistic and technical success. Luxemburg, Denmark (where Arhus has joined up with Copenhagen), Scotland and other hubs in the southern areas of England have by now really given Emergenza a solid presence and the most complete network of all the new programs existing in Europe that are orientated towards emerging music. We can expect great things for the future. Starting with the next season the festival will be expanding out to the United States. Washington, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Buffalo are the cities that will be involved. Big clubs like The Nation (Washington), The Metro, and The Double Door (Chicago), Avalon, and Paradise Rock (Boston) will be a part of the first edition of Emergenza U.S.A. Back at home in Europe developments include two new cities in Spain - Bilbao and Valencia will be alongside Madrid and Barcellona. In Sweden, two or three new offices will be set up in Stockholm. And finally, there are two important developments for France, Germany, and Italy and those who live in areas that the festival hasn’t yet reached. The festival is opening for the first time in the eastern part of Germany; while in Italy, Emergenza is arriving in the south – Napoli, Lecce, Bari, and Taranto are the first cities; finally, in France – Nantes and Lille are tired of sitting on the sidelines, they will join in the game with Bordeax and Paris. We can expect yet another season of incredible effort, concerts, and discoveries. Good luck to you all, and most importantly?…Keep on playing.