‘We’ve learned a lot through experience’: North Sea Jazz Festival at 50
As the festival brings up its half-century, its director talks balancing evolving operations and programming with its immense legacy
News By Ciaran Donnelly | 27 May 2026
The world’s largest indoor music festival will celebrate half a century in business when North Sea Jazz (NSJ) returns to Rotterdam in early July.
Since its early days, the festival has seen changes in venue, programming, and generations of audiences, but the 50th anniversary celebrations are anchored around a consistent DNA underpinning a festival with consistent magnetism.
Never without a political and social bedrock in its 50 years of life, the upcoming anniversary edition is aiming to trace a…
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