THE late John Peel was a big fan of the Eurosonic festival. He used to come over to the northern Dutch town every January to check out the many bands from all over Europe that were tipped to make it big that year.

A compact little university town, Groningen has more than its fair share of record shops and Peel used to love wandering around the canals and cobblestone streets, filing through obscure American hardcore vinyl records.

A few years before he died, he found a record he loved, went home and played it on his show.

The band in question was called. . . The White Stripes.

Such chance discoveries are the beating heart of Eurosonic, a three-day exposition of Europe's hopeful popular music acts, all carried out under the watchful eye of a myriad of industry executives, bookers, agents, managers and promoters.

This weekend, more than 140 bands officially played around the 30 venues that dot the centre of Groningen, which is roughly the size and shape of Galway city.

Imagine it, around 10,000 music fans and more than 2,000 industry types on what must be one of the world's biggest guestlists filing from one venue to the next, taking in some Italian hardcore, Swedish indie pop, Dutch techno or Luxembourg electro pop.

The list of bands playing is exhaustive. It's impossible to name even half the bands. Most folks stay for a couple of songs and leave to see another band.

Music fans party, while everpresent but almost unseen, there is very serious business being conducted involving a lot of people's money.

The festival began in the early 1990s as a Dutch-only event in only five venues, held on a Friday night. About five years ago, Europe's main national broadcasters, including our own RT�?, came on board and helped take it to another level. Veteran radio producer Ian Wilson has been one of the driving forces behind its expansion, coordinating the recording and live broadcast of the Irish representatives on radio every year.

"The diversity of stuff, even the range of languages, is incredible, " says Wilson. "Because there are so many national radio stations (from France, Germany, Sweden and the BBC) broadcasting the event there are so many bands represented here. Some of them are shit, of course, but that's not the point."

Wilson isn't kidding. The standard of band is very, em, wide-ranging. On Thursday night I saw six different bands including an awful Dutch hardcore combo called A Silent Express, a marginally better Italian metal band named Super Elastic Bubble Plastic and the stunning British emo-core trance hopefuls Enter Shikari.

Elsewhere, local band Kraak & Smaak (try saying that in a Dutch accent) lived up to their moniker while bigger acts such as Air Traffic, The View and Peter Bjorn & John drew massive crowds.

Meanwhile, around the corner in a "coffee shop", an Estonian reggae band played a curious form of sunsplash. Not that anyone really noticed.

One of the event's most important functions is its links with festival organisers throughout Europe. There are upwards of 40 music festivals across the continent every summer, including obviously Oxegen and the Electric Picnic, and all those charged with filling the line-ups are here to make key decisions. It's a serious business.

"I just met Martin who's here to book bands for this year's Glastonbury festival, " says Wilson. "These guys are very serious about it. They map out their whole weekend. They work the event and have a strategic plan."

Managers and agents are connected, mobile phone numbers exchanged. Business done.

The only players missing from the event are the record companies themselves. "It doesn't involve record companies, they are quite peripheral to it, " says Wilson.

Eurosonic is a live festival for the live music and broadcast business. Around the town all weekend there are seminars and worskshops ranging from event management to live music forums.

There is even a European talent exchange programme involving the radio stations who meet to review the festival and decide which bands qualify for EC subsidies to help fund the chosen band's tour.

This year Wilson put forward three Irish acts to play, Duke Special, Humanzi and Julie Feeney, whose set was broadcast on Dan Hegarty's show on Thursday night. Last night's Humanzi performance will be aired on Hegarty's show tomorrow night on 2FM.

All the performances from the six biggest venues have been recorded and are kept in the vaults of each participant radio station for play at any time. It's a great springboard for the artists in one of the most difficult aspects of making it in today's music business - getting radio air play.

Over the past five years, Wilson has, through Eurosonic, showcased The Frames, Bell X1 and David Kitt. He doesn't always get the selection right.

Last year The Chalets and The Radio played. The inclusion of Humanzi is slightly disappointing as there are far more worthy bands currently in need of a boost.

This year sees a bigger involvement from television broadcasters, with the German national broadcaster having sent out a bunch of cameramen that can be seen at most of the venues. This means the Irish acts will potentially get shown on television throughout Europe.

MTV also has a presence for the first time this year.

Eurosonic 2007 movers and shakers The manager:

Max from Switzerland, looks after The Delilahs, a Swiss indie rock outfit that played on Thursday night. "The guys have learned so much from playing here and seeing how the industry works. They are only kids so when they come here they see what it takes to cut it in the music business. It's a real eye-opener for them."

The booking agent:

Neil from The Agency, the UK's biggest live booking agent whose clients include most of the world's biggest bands, including Muse.

"I've come here with a musician that I hope to have touring in Britain very soon. I've asked a bunch of promoters to the gig and hopefully they will be suitably impressed and we can use this as a springboard for a full UK push."

The independent promoter:

Tom from Amsterdam, scouts talent from Holland and the Nordic countries. His roster includes one of the bands with the biggest buzz around them on the first night of the festival, Oh No Ono from Denmark. "This has been really good for them. The only problem is if we get too successful, the big promoters come in and then I have to let go. It's hard to compete with some of the industry heavyweights, so I constantly have to be on the lookout for new talent."

The journalist:

Petra from Germany works for an internet music fanzine. "Eurosonic is the best thing about January. Everyone is looking forward to the new year and the new bands that are going to go on to bigger things. This is a great opportunity for me the check out some of the bands that have been hyped and see if they are any good live?" The radio producer:

Ian Wilson from 2FM, one of the festival kingpins and a driving force behind its expansion. "The artists we choose to represent Ireland have to have an international recording deal of some kind.

They have to be in a position to make use of the profile they get here so that they can follow up on it. There's no point otherwise."