Olaf Furniss

Olaf Furniss is the co-founder of Wide Events, which hosts the Wide Days international music convention, the Born To Be Wide seminar/social evenings, the Off The Record youth initiative and in partnership with the Edinburgh Fringe, Made In Scotland Gigs.

The company is also spearheading Scotland’s music export initiatives with Active Events and in addition to promoting the Scottish presence at ESNS, SXSW, The Great Escape and FOCUS Wales, has developed a training workshop for music-makers and rights holders to become sync ready. It has also developed collaborations with music professionals in Mexico.

An expert in music tourism, Olaf organised the world’s first international conference to bring together the two sectors and has hosted numerous workshops/panels on the subject. In 2023 he launched the Music Tourist podcast celebrating a broad range of case studies including ABBA The Museum, the Mexico City cumbia tour and the Sesssions & Sail music retreat where participants cruise around Scotland’s Hebrides archipelago.

As a journalist Olaf has reported for the BBC, The Guardian, Billboard, Musik Woche and I-Q, and he co-writes the Under The Radar column in the Scotland on Sunday, focusing on emerging Scottish talent.