Ljubljana Jazz Festival
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26 Sep 2015
Follow the white rabbit, a lecture by Bogdan Benigar, director of the Ljubljana Jazz Festival, at the European Jazz Conference
International Ljubljana Jazz Festival is one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe. In the year 2009 it was celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is the central international jazz event in Slovenia, as it was before in ex-Yugoslavia.
History
Festival began life in 1960 as Yugoslavian Jazz Festival. For the first six years it took place in Bled, then in 1967 it moved to Ljubljana to Tivoli Hall and in 1970 finally found its traditional domicile in the attractive outdoor venue of Križanke. Due to organisational problems and surrounded controversy about its music orientation in the mid-80s the festival was moved for two years to Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre. In 1982 the organisation was taken over from the local Slovene Jazz Society, its conventional and traditionalistic jazz milieu and close-tied connections with Big Band RTV Ljubljana The festival presents the most eminent world jazz and improvising musicians, from Europe, USA and other parts of Americas, Africa, Asia and Australi. Many open air or interdisciplinary events accompany the festival, including street performances, film music and music film documentaries, exhibitions of posters, jazz photography and art exhibitions by jazz musicians. In recent years Ljubljana Jazz Festival co-operates closely with Maribor (Izzven) Jazz Festival and Jazz Cerkno Festival.