Düsseldorfer Jazz-Rally

The Düsseldorf Jazz Rally ( also: Düsseldorf Jazz Rally ) is a renowned music festival in Dusseldorf, which takes place every year since 1993 on a weekend in early summer. It is by far the most visited jazz festival in Germany.

The event initially looked at the Jazz rally from Brussels and was first held from 25 to 27 June 1993 under the name Brussels Jazz Rally held. In the ninth edition of the festival called meanwhile Düsseldorf Jazz Rally from June 25 to July 1, 2001 came to the partly outdoor concerts taking place despite intermittent rain already 280,000 visitors. In recent years, the number of visitors people was usually at a quarter of a million and more. This is from Friday to Sunday at several dozen venues a series of nearly a hundred concerts offered.

For the extraordinary popularity, it is firstly important to note that nearly all performances can be visited with a single ticket that is issued in the form of an easily controllable "buttons", and on the other hand, that a large part of the venues located in Düsseldorf city center and principle the one from the other is reachable on foot, which is to be symbolized by the term rally. Not unimportant is the fact that several venues in the already heavily frequented Düsseldorf's Old Town and the airport are open and accessible for free. In contrast, a few special concerts are also not available with the " button", but only with specially purchased ticket.

Patron of the Jazz Rally for several years Klaus Doldinger, who had fled after the Second World War as a child with his family from Vienna to Dusseldorf and there took his first steps as a jazz musician as a teenager.

Criticism

The festival receives strong support from the city of Dusseldorf, and large local companies and is organized by the destination Dusseldorf, an association of Düsseldorf-based company. This at the same time and by a lower value is taken a lot of the concerts of less well-known musicians, still relatively unknown young artists or music students, and placed on international stars, it allows the audience- pricing, which is a flat rate comparable. Visitors can, if they want to visit for the price of conventional concert tickets at each of the three days of the event several concerts in a row. In the special concerts and popular music styles beyond jazz are presented, most recently Roger Cicero (2007), Fantastic Four (2008 ) and Jan Delay ( 2009).

In this pushed forward over time concept on the one hand, both diluting the quality to be discovered as well as on the other hand a successful way to reach an audience that goes far beyond the usual circle of visitors from jazz concerts and festivals. The number of guests exceeds, for example, the Leverkusen Jazz Days, one of the most prestigious jazz festivals in Germany, more than ten times.