Jazz festivals
Festivals are important stages for jazz musicians to play their own music. The Vereniging Nederlandse Jazzpodia en Jazzfestivals (VNJJ) unites most of the Dutch jazz festivals.
Selection of jazz festivals
The largest festival is the North Sea Jazz Festival which takes place annually in July in Rotterdam. Comparable European festivals are Copenhagen Jazz Festival or Montreux Jazz Festival.
Other Dutch jazz festivals:
Stranger than Paranoia
Haarlem Jazz
Jazz in Duketown in ‘s Hertogenbosch
Jazz Festival Breda
RAUWFEST (Jazz International) in Rotterdam
Amersfoort Jazz
ZomerJazzFietsTour buiten Groningen
Showcase festivals
In addition to large festivals for the general public, there are also genre-specific showcase festivals organised by Buma Cultuur. There are seminars during the day, as well as shows. It is interesting for bands to perform here, because almost the entire music industry attends and these festivals get a lot of attention from the press. InJazz in Rotterdam is a showcase festival for the jazz industry.
Besides, in January, the Eurosonic/Noorderslag Festival takes place in Groningen. This is the most important showcase festival in the world for live music alongside SXSW and the most important showcase festival in Europe. BumaNL in Utrecht is the showcase festival for Dutch-language music.