Turku Jazz Festival, the second oldest Finnish jazz festival will be moved back to March after four years of taking place in August. The new main venue will be cultural centre Logomo’s newly renovated theatre hall, Teatro. In 2018, the festival will host vibraphonist Severi Pyysalo’s 50th anniversary.
Turku Jazz Festival 2018 will be organised on 8 - 11 March, kicking off on Thursday 8 March at Åbo Svenska Teater. A new innovative concert concept utilising several stages will be built around Cultural Centre Logomo’s Teatro Hall, the main venue of the festival. A number of free concerts will also take place in Turku city centre.
The upcoming Turku Jazz Festival will celebrate the long-standing Turku-born vibraphonist Severi Pyysalo’s 50th anniversary with two concerts. The concerts will see a host of distinguished colleagues and bandmates from the vibraphonist’s over 35-year career join him on stage.
The festival’s return to March supports the City of Turku’s agenda to offer its citizens high-standard cultural events year round. Also, the organisers wish to avoid any overlapping of cultural offerings. With regard to national jazz calendar, March is an ideal month for a jazz festival: this new slot sees Turku Jazz Festival take place after Helsinki’s We Jazz and Ylläs Jazz and Blues but before Espoo’s April Jazz.
“This is Turku Jazz Festival both returning to its roots and undergoing a thorough facelift. The plan is to turn Logomo into a veritable jazz heaven where fans of music can wander from one space to another enthralled by music. We were lucky to book a wonderful line-up for the 2018 edition, so the renaissance of the festival will surely stun both the audience and the crew,” says Jussi Fredriksson, the Chair for Turku Jazz ry.
Turku Jazz Festival 2017 faced many challenges due to an act of violence that shocked the city during the festival. The acts that were cancelled this year, Verneri Pohjola: Pekka and Aki Rissanen and Mari Palo's Sininen syksy, were the first to be booked to perform at the upcoming festival at the audience’s and the crew’s insistence. Kaisa’s Machine, whose show was also cancelled, will star Turku’s Flame Jazz in April.
The tickets will be available in November and the whole programme for the festival will be released on 16 December at the closing concert of the autumn season.