It's been five years.

Things roll at a furious pace, so before we forget all about what we're doing, and been doing, let's try to summarize. Here's some shattered recollections on how we been moving over the last couple of years. It's very fragmented as one thing constantly leads to another, so here's no more than a futile attempt to an overview. Five years, damn!

In 2017, the first effort was made under the name Westside Music Sweden when four artists were presented under a groove at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg. On stage we had Maybe Canada, Black River Delta, Sarah Klang and The Bongo Club. In December of the same year, the first edition of Viva Sounds was made, with a handful of talks, some invited guests and seven shows on two stages, all in the same day. 2018 continued to the same beat and we ended up at more festivals abroad with bands/artists from the scene here at home. Westside continued as a project within the music department at the association KulturUngdom and we talked to more active members of the music scene in Gothenburg and our region about Westside as a platform and called those who liked the idea partners. There wasn't really a plan but it worked and there were more shows, more festivals and more trips for musicians and representatives from companies from the region to various events. And it became a Viva Sounds that spanned two days and with far more guests, visitors, talks and concerts. Around this time, in 2018, we started looking at the possibilities of making something more permanent of Westside and at the end of the year we got a budget to work with (thanks VGR) for the coming year. 2019 was going to be something completely different, and it was.

On April 1st, of course, we moved into an office on Kungälvsgatan. 15 square meters and kitchenette a floor up. With full focus on increasing the live opportunities for bands/artists from this part of Sweden, 2019 was summed up as an almost insane year. The company was formed in May and in December we counted 26 festivals in 19 countries, over 100 shows done on various tours and festivals - and Viva Sounds took place on seven stages in Gothenburg at the end of the year. This time with conference guests from 13 countries. Then some bad things happened and everything changed. 18 months later we came out of the dryer with pretty much the network intact and with a new model that still wanted to see things on stage but one that also produced media and supported releases, and got to do our festival again, after a year on hold.

We have stuck to that model, platform based working with live, media, releases and Viva Sounds. And we've always kept hungry to show off what a great music scene we got and therefore trying to make others hear all that noise, see it and feel it. We carry the activity itself as a torch and we still have no plans to do things any differently. If it works, keep at it - if it doesn't, try again. That's the only strategy we ever needed and it is by that we find ourselves today.

It's been five years now and without any real plan there has been a lot of content. All that was, and still is, is a really good place with a lot of good music and a lot of good people. Based on that, we have sounded the alarm. And we will keep doing that as long as there's a beat to the track. Five years and more than ready for five more.