Friday 7 October 2016

Want to play at JazzAhead 2017?


JazzAhead is one of the largest jazz expos in the world and it takes place over in Bremen each April. Thousands of musicians, agents, festival directors and organisations gather for the 4 day event and there are four official showcase concerts across the event.

Musicians can attend as a delegate and many do so a chance to meet with promoters and festival directors from across Europe to begin building relationships and setting up gigs for their ensembles. They can also apply to play in one of the showcase events and applications are now being accepted for these showcases.

Currently, there is only one of the four that UK groups can apply for - European Jazz Meeting. This features musicians from across Europe. The other three showcases are German Jazz Expo (german jazz), Overseas Night (jazz from outside of Europe) and the showcase hosted by the event's partner country (2017's is Finland).

Applications are judged by a panel and the deadline is October 31st. In terms of opportunities to apply for, this certainly isn't for everyone and musicians should carefully read the guidelines on the website to ascertain whether their music is at the right stage to benefit from this kind of event. However, it can be a great stepping stone to building an international reputation so it worth investigating.

See the Jazzahead website for further information.

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