jazzahead! 2022 Readies for In-Person Hybrid Experience

By DownBeat I Mar. 20, 2022

jazzahead! has become Europe’s leading jazz convention.
(Photo: Courtesy jazzahead!)

With a host of new ideas, and a significantly larger hall with more exhibition space, jazzahead! is heading towards its next edition this spring.

“We’re back, and the offering is even more attractive,” said Sybille Kornitschky, who runs jazzahead! for Messe Bremen. The trade fair itself will take place from April 28 April to May 1, while the accompanying festival starts earlier, on April 14. The partner country this year is Canada, and the trade fair will be held in hybrid form, which means both live and digital.

“We have been planning for a hybrid concept since last summer, but what we look forward to the most is what actually happens on-site,” Kornitschky said.

jazzahead! 2022’s strapline is “Together Again,” distinguishing it from last year’s digital-only event. “We have taken the very best of that digital experience and refined it further,” Kornitschky said. The size of the hall has more than doubled from previous years — Hall 5 has 10,300 square meters of space versus Hall 6’s 4,800 square meters — which offers opportunities to redesign and reconfigure things. “The way the hall is divided is materially different,” Kornitschky noted.

Individual countries and regions are more closely linked to each other than was previously the case. “We can form clusters, one could say,” Kornitschky said. “I firmly believe that the future lies in nurturing much stronger exchange between neighboring regions and countries than was done before.” The exhibition space is not only larger, but also more attractive, Kornitschky promised. “There will simply be much more going on than before.” Exhibitors can participate in shaping the trade fair program through the “Exhibitor Plus” package.

The hybrid concept is of paramount importance this year, not least because there is added value in it for both exhibitors and trade participants. Once again, there will be networking opportunities that extend well beyond the four days of the fair itself in the “matchmaking” sessions, through the use of an event platform. In addition to the showcase concerts, the content of the program for specialists will also be recorded this time; this means that those who opt for purely online participation will be able to interact effectively. “We have thought this through and designed it in a very coherent manner,” Kornitschky said. “This all reflects our mission which, as ever, is to strengthen exchange and connectivity within the international jazz scene.”

There is also an innovation in the showcase concerts this year: For the first time, there will be four stages rather than three, which means that an audience of 1,000 to 1,200 people can be accommodated. “Instead of just one big room, we will have two big concert stages that we program in parallel, which means less congestion in the audience areas,” Kornitschky said. As usual, all of the concerts will be recorded, which means that people can watch afterwards online what they are unable to see live. DB