The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is an annual

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or ho ...

held in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. The first one was held in 2000 to 2005 and is recognized as the fourth largest jazz festival in the world and the largest jazz festival on the

African continent Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. The festival was called the "Cape Town North Sea Jazz Festival" due to its association with the

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual festival held each second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it has been held in Rotterdam. This is because the Statenhal where the festival w ...

in the Netherlands.

History

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival started in 2000 as part of the North Sea Jazz Festival. This was part of an arrangement that came about as a result of the partnership between espAfrika (a South African events management company) and Mojo Concerts BV, the founders of the Dutch North Sea Jazz Festival. It was the first time that a jazz festival with four simultaneous legs took place in South Africa. The festival occurred ever year until 2005 as the North Sea Jazz Festival. Thereafter, from 2005 onwards, the festival was renamed to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival due to the partnership failing. The festival has grown since it first started in 2000, and as a result, attendance has also grown from 14,000 concert goers in 2000 to 34,000 concert goers in 2013. From its inception to 2003, the event was held at the

Good Hope Centre The Good Hope Centre in Cape Town, South Africa (1976) by Pier Luigi Nervi, is an exhibition hall and conference centre, with the exhibition hall comprising an arch with tie-beam on each of the four vertical facades and two diagonal arches support ...

but it outgrew the venue, so from 2004, the festival has since been hosted at the

Cape Town International Convention Centre The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) is a convention centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The centre opened in June 2003. It is run as a partnership between the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape government. Venues The ...

Lawsuit

In 2000, the North Sea Jazz Festival came to Cape Town, South Africa for the first time. From 2000 to 2005, the festival was marketed as the ''North Sea Jazz Festival'' as part of a contract between espAfrika and Mojo Concerts. The plan was for Mojo Concerts to provide the necessary infrastructure for a world class African Jazz Festival, so as soon as that happened, Mojo Concerts took espAfrika to court. They filed for espAfrika's liquidation to consolidate a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

500,000 debt that had been incurred over the 5-year contract. On 26 April 2005, a settlement was reached outside of court in which the debt was consolidated and espAfrika was able to continue with the festival, now under the name of the "Cape Town International Jazz Festival".

Previous festivals

The 2007 edition of the festival was endorsed by then Cape Town's Mayor

Helen Zille Otta Helene Maree (''née'' Zille ; born 9 March 1951), known as Helen Zille, is a South African politician. She has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019. From 2009 until 2019, she w ...

. The 2010 edition of the festival contributed R 740 million to the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 202 ...

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

. For an extra R25.00 per show, music enthusiasts gain access to the ''Rosies Stage'' which features more relaxed, acoustic

Jazz Music Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a maj ...

. Every year just before the main event, a free open-air concert with selected performers is held at the

Greenmarket Square Greenmarket Square is a historical square in the centre of old Cape Town, South Africa. The square was built in 1696, when a burgher watch house was erected. Over the years, the square has served as a slave market, a vegetable market, a parkin ...

References

External links

Official site
{{Jazz Jazz festivals in South Africa Festivals in Cape Town Recurring events established in 2000 2000 establishments in South Africa Autumn events in South Africa