Looking back on jazzahead! 2024

16 April 2024

Let us start by saying thank you, jazzahead!, and thank you Bremen! After the year-long preparations and all the preliminary talks, it was such a pleasure to finally be immersed in jazzahead! 2024 for over four days. We have welcomed many, many friends and colleagues, made new acquaintances, truly connected people across borders, genres and ages, and yes, served a lot of coffee at our Dutch.inJazz stand.

After the opening ceremony with a couple of nice musical teasers and reflections on the contemporary jazz scene in the Netherlands, the three trade fair days flew by in the blink of an eye. How wonderful to see such happy faces, in the audience as well as on stage at our showcase concerts. Taking a largely professional audience on a journey in half an hour is not an easy task, but the Dutch performers made it happen from the first slot on Thursday afternoon until their last one on Saturday night. We don’t want to single out any names now, but rather mention that the reception was great, warm, and enthusiastic without exceptions.

There was a moment during the Gala concert on Saturday where we had to pinch ourselves, as we witnessed a roaring response of the crowd at the Congress Hall. The Dutch.inJazz team even found themselves trying to dance the mambo with strangers, colleagues, and various musicians from the jazzahead! programme. Also during Clubnight and the bicycle tour, when artists from the Netherlands played before a predominantly Bremen audience, appreciation was shown generously. Again, we are very thankful for that! After finishing Sunday’s 22 kilometres long Afterglow Jazzride through and around Bremen, and having enjoyed three diverse Dutch acts in wonderful locations together with 75 jazz friends, we took the train home as a tired but very happy team.

On behalf of Buma Cultuur, Performing Arts Fund NL, and all the partners we want to thank everyone involved.

Photos by Eric van Nieuwland and Jan Rathke.