Great vibes all around

The 40th anniversary of the Oslo Jazz Festival has now come to an end, and we can look back on a highly successful celebration. Venues and stages throughout Oslo were packed, with concerts of consistently high quality. Well over 10,000 tickets were sold, exceeding the budgeted target, and particularly encouraging is the fact that interest among younger audiences continues to grow. A large number of concerts sold out, and there was also considerable interest in the festival’s extensive free programme.

“The anniversary festival was a fitting celebration of the Oslo Jazz Festival’s history and standing,” says festival director Line Juul. “We are delighted that our clear focus on artistic quality and diversity in programming, on creating social meeting places, and on highlighting young talent has paid off with strong audience attendance and a wonderful festival atmosphere. We are left with a host of fantastic musical experiences!”

Over the course of the festival’s seven days, almost 150 different events were held across 24 venues. The festival made a greater mark on the cityscape, with parades, pop-up concerts around the city, and two outdoor stages at Spikersuppa and by Deichman Bjørvika. Here, the jazz musicians of tomorrow performed as part of the festival’s Oslojazz Ung initiative, to great enthusiasm from audiences.

“It was a real pleasure to fill the city with so much jazz, bringing joy to audiences, tourists and passers-by,” Juul continues.

We celebrated the 40th anniversary in several ways throughout the week. The sold-out opening concert featuring The Source: of Oslo was an unequivocal success and set the tone for the rest of the festival. The festival also presented a free concert at Oslo City Hall featuring carillonist Laura-Marie Rueslåtten and trumpeter Kristina Fransson, to the delight of a large audience. In addition, there were anniversary concerts by Hot Club de Norvége and Ophelia Orchestra, both of whom performed at the very first festival in 1986, as well as a mini-seminar at the National Library exploring the festival’s 40-year history.

Among the countless other highlights, the concerts featuring festival artist Brian Blade deserve special mention. Blade performed three concerts, with Bugge Wesseltoft & Mari Boine, Hanna Paulsberg, and Johan Lindström respectively, and all three were sold out. Other headliners, including Karin Krog & The-Inbetween-Times, Tord Gustavsen Trio feat. Arve Henriksen, and Nils Petter Molvær: Bitches Brew, also sold out their concerts and will stand out as major artistic highlights of this year’s festival.

“Having Brian Blade as this year’s festival artist was an artistic triumph. In addition, new friendships and musical connections were formed that were simply moving,” says Juul.

This year, we offered more than 90 free events as part of the programme, and the response was enormous. There were large crowds and long queues outside the Oslojazz Talent concerts, lively jam sessions, and strong attendance at the children’s concerts, as well as large audiences at the outdoor stages throughout the festival.

“Once again, the Oslo Jazz Festival became a wonderful week-long celebration for the entire jazz community in Oslo. In total, we estimate that approximately 22,000 people heard jazz in Oslo this week,” Juul concludes.