The annual Red Light Jazz festival in the heart of Amsterdam returns to the city center in early June for three days of jazz at unique locations. Since its first edition in 2014, the multi-day metropolitan jazz festival has developed into a major event that brings together Amsterdammers and visitors from home and abroad to enjoy the many performances together.
Red Light Jazz combines traditional and modern jazz with the unique atmosphere of the oldest part of the city where jazz was introduced by American sailors in the 1920s and 1930s. The festival is not only a tribute to the music style that has its origins in the blues, but also to the Red Light District, a much-discussed neighborhood with a rich culture and history. The many intimate performance locations, ranging from historic cafés, shops, theaters to a sometimes unexpected outdoor space, ensure an unforgettable experience.
Exhibition Jazz Years: People, Migration and Music in Amsterdam, 1930–1939
In the 1930s, Amsterdam became home to a thriving jazz scene shaped by artists from the United States, Suriname, and Eastern Europe. This is the subject of the multimedia exhibition Jazz Years: People, Migration and Music in Amsterdam, 1930–1939 at the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. The exhibition places both international and local celebrities within their social environment, with special attention to the international networks that connected them. The focus is not only on the stories of musicians, but also on actors and on the experiences of Afro-Surinamese and Afro-Caribbean sailors living in Amsterdam at the time. The exhibition presents the results of this new research into musicians, theatre makers, and cultural figures through music and other audiovisual material drawn from various collections, photography — including family archives — visual art, and remarkable archival documents.
Red Light Jazz Festival
The old city centre of Amsterdam has had a jazz culture since the 1930s. American sailors used to bring jazz records with them on their travels and that is how Amsterdam was introduced to jazz. This music style, which is now popular with a wide audience, has its roots in the area around the Zeedijk and the Nieuwmarkt, as far as Amsterdam and perhaps even the Netherlands are concerned. Check the link for the locations.
Since 2014, Red Light Jazz has brought the original atmosphere of the city centre back to life for a short time every year during a weekend full of live jazz, where most of the concerts are also free to attend.
The festival line-up features many jazz musicians who have a strong connection with Amsterdam in terms of birth, place of residence, education or otherwise. Red Light Jazz also offers a stage to well-known and unknown national and international jazz acts and young talent.
