Experience 100 bands

Every year in April, parallel to the jazzahead! trade fair in Bremen, the jazzahead! FESTIVAL takes place, with a different partner country at its center each year. Together with numerous cooperation partners, we organize a city-wide music program around the world's largest meeting place for the jazz scene. In addition to the showcase festival, the program includes the GRAND OPENING, the CLUBNIGHT, and a supporting program.

Malika Zarra is considered the jewel of Moroccan jazz © Gabriela Cais Burdmann

"Jazz music is the power of now," trumpeter Wynton Marsalis once said. In Bremen, too, the focus is firmly on the present. Next spring, more than 100 concerts on large and small stages will showcase how exciting contemporary music sounds. Since 2006, the jazzahead! festival has been a fixture in the calendars of jazz fans from Germany and around the world. From April 22 to 25, the city will once again transform into a center of the international scene. Up-and-coming talents and renowned formations will perform in showcase concerts selected by international juries at the Bremen Exhibition Center, which are also open to the general public. On Friday and Saturday evenings, the entire state will become a festival venue, stretching all the way to Bremerhaven, when 45 locations – from small bars to magnificent theaters – open their doors for CLUBNIGHT. The festival kicks off on Wednesday evening with a bang. The grand opening brings together the extraordinary Norrbotten Big Band from partner country Sweden with the acclaimed fusion funk band KNOWER from the USA. A spectacular collaboration, fitting for the 20th anniversary of jazzahead! A festival for discoveries: danceable, experimental, sensual, and moving.

April 22 to 25, 2026

www.jazzahead.de