Pori Jazz Festival

Month : July
Place : Pori, Finland
Famous For : Music Festival
Attractions : Jazz, Blues, Doul, Funk, Hip hop, Afro-Cuban, World music, Pop music

Pori Jazz is a large international jazz festival, held annually in the coastal city of Pori, Finland. It is one of the oldest and best known jazz festivals in Europe, having been arranged every year since 1966. The first Pori Jazz festival lasted one weekend and drew about 1500 people; nowadays more than 250,000 people attend the festival that lasts nine days. The main arena of the festival is located in a small nature park named Kirjurinluoto, near the centre of Pori.

Major Attractions

The festival includes many other venues as well, among them the Jazz street with many free concerts. The most legendary of these smaller venues is a club called Cafe Jazz, which presents world class jazz and jam sessions in a cozy atmosphere. Tickets for the Cafe Jazz weekend concerts are always sold out many months in advance. Numerous world-famous musicians (including, for example, Tori Amos, Art Blakey, James Brown, Phil Collins, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Alicia Keys, Paul Simon, Jamiroquai, Macy Gray, Erykah Badu, Paul Anka, Kanye West, Sting and others) have performed at the festival through the years, as well as lesser-known groups from Finland and elsewhere. Musical genres covered at Pori Jazz include varieties of jazz, blues, soul, funk, hip hop, Afro-Cuban, world music, and occasionally even some forms of pop music.