Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Chicago’s South Side to Present 20th Edition
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
Schubert NOW performs a showcase concert at jazzahead! 2025.
(Photo: Jens Schlenker)Bands can apply until Oct. 8 for one of the 38 coveted concert slots at jazzahead!, the world’s largest jazz fair/festival, which will take place in April 2026. Over the course of two decades, jazzahead! has established itself as one of the most important platforms for future jazz headliners to become visible internationally. Showcase applications are being accepted online at jazzahead.de/showcases.
Thousands of visitors and professionals from the jazz industry (booking, management, labels and more) will make their way to Bremen, Germany, to attend the top-quality program of showcase concerts, which starts on April 23. Five international juries will select the best acts from all over the world, including eight from Germany and eight from partner country Sweden.
Registration for jazzahead! begins on Oct. 8. The conference begins on April 22 with the Grand Opening Concert, and it will culminate on the evening of April 25 when the German Jazz Prize awards ceremony, a key event in the national jazz calendar, returns to Bremen.
Once registration has been completed, jazz professionals and other participants can start to use jazzahead’s online network. The jazzahead.de website has been given a revamp to make navigation accessible for all, as well as a fresh redesign.
“Sweden as our partner country, it’s long overdue,” Götz Bühler, artistic advisor to jazzahead!, said of the focus for next year’s 20th anniversary event. “Starting with Jan Johansson, through E.S.T. to Goran Kajfes and Mats Gustafsson and beyond, a vibrant and independent scene has developed. There is no single thing that can be called ‘Swedish jazz’ — it is the kaleidoscopic diversity which makes it so exciting.”
“It all started with six evening concerts at Congress Centrum Bremen,” recalled Sybille Kornitschky, who has run jazzahead! from the beginning. “The trade fair just about filled the foyer of the hall. And there weren’t really exhibition stands yet; what I remember above all is a few trestle tables. In 2006, we hadn’t yet made any distinction between trade participants and concertgoers. There were about 900 guests and they mostly came from Germany.”
As the world’s leading industry event in the jazz sector, jazzahead! draws approximately 3,000 trade participants from more than 60 nations. “Back then, none of us would have dared to hope for that,” said Kornitschky.
“In parallel with this has gone the steady expansion of a city-wide festival designed to appeal to a broad audience. In 2025, over 20,000 visitors came to the city of Bremen.”
For more information on jazzahead! 2026, CLICK HERE. DB
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