The Finnish Jazz Federation will organize two tours and two co-produced tours in the fall of 2017. Application for the Jazz-Espa Festival 2017, taking place in July, can be completed with the same application form. Application closes on the 16th of October 2016. The Finnish Jazz Federation will complete the selection process before the year’s end.
The application form can be found in Finnish HERE. If you need an English form, please contact our office at info(at)jazzliitto.fi.
Selection criteria
Apply for a tour produced or co-produced by the Finnish Jazz Federation or to perform at the Jazz-Espa Festival 2017. Application closes on October 2016.
Traditional tours (produced by The Finnish Jazz Federation)
The Finnish Jazz Federation commits to organize 5 to 8 concerts by the selected band within a period of two weeks, primarily through its member associations. In case of an exceptionally large band, the minimum number of concerts might be reduced to 4 due to financial reasons. The Finnish Jazz Federation will produce the tour, pay fees and per diems to the artists and sound engineers, and pay all travel, accommodation and publicity- and marketing-related costs.
Tour dates:
Tour 1: September 18 – October 1, 2017
Tour 2 : November 27 – December 10, 2017
NOTE! Only ONE application per applicant. If you have several bands, applying with the group that is the most active and topical will maximise your chances of becoming selected. Include in the application your group’s or group members’ homepage(s), or any website where your music is available. In case there are no music samples available online, they should be sent in MP3 format by email to the address info@jazzliitto.fi .
The following points will be given particular weight in the selection process: professionalism and the high quality and originality of the material. The level of professionalism will be assessed also in relation to promotion materials; ticket sales correlate positively with an informative homepage, for instance. Also, the group’s topicality at the time of the tour (with regard to new releases etc.) will be taken into consideration. Whether the group has been selected before and when will also be taken into account. There is a 3-year waiting period between two tours by the same band or band leader. The band is qualified to apply for a tour if the band leader is Finnish and most of the musicians are Finnish.
The Finnish Jazz Federation might end up offering a co-tour for two groups. Further, it should be ensured already at the stage of submitting the application that each group member should be available during the whole tour period that they are applying for.
Co-produced tours
Have you and your band been planning a tour for the fall of 2017? Will you have something special to offer that time, a new album, maybe? Have you already found a body to produce and finance your tour, take care of the practicalities, marketing and ticket sales? The Finnish Jazz Federation will support two groups or two production companies that actively pursue their goal, have a clear vision of what they want and a realisable plan with a budget to carry out their tour.
In short, this production model entails that the Finnish Jazz Federation will support each of the two selected bands/producers with a maximum sum of 6000 euros. The sum can be targeted at some of the following, for instance:
- artist fees
- sound engineer fees
- PA equipment (should the equipment of the Finnish Jazz Federation prove insufficient)
- travel costs (petrol, travel costs when the Finnish Jazz Federation’s tour bus will not be utilised)
- accommodation costs
- costs pertaining to marketing and publicity
- producer fees
A plan that states clearly to which ends the support from the Finnish Jazz Federation will be used should be provided by applicants.
The Finnish Jazz Federation will offer its PA equipment and tour bus (8 + 1 seats) at the selected band’s disposal free of charge, and provide an accommodation deal with Restel Oy hotels. The co-producing party can apply for financial support from the Finnish Music Foundation and other parties; however, any funding applied or received should be stated in the application form and reported later. The co-producing party will be in charge of the execution of the tour. The co-produced tours should take place within August 1 and December 31 of 2017, and to prevent any complications, the tours should not overlap with those produced solely by the Finnish Jazz Federation (see the dates above).
Jazz-Espa: 24 July – 5 August 2017
Jazz-Espa is a traditional two-week concert series of Finnish jazz that takes place in the Esplanadi Park in Helsinki. Twenty bands are selected to perform at the festival. Concerts take place mainly in the afternoon at 4PM and 5:30PM each weekday. The jury is looking for acts that are suitable for outdoor performing, primarily Finnish and have not been selected to go on a Finnish Jazz Federation -produced tour or performed at Espa in the past two years.