Open Jazz Festival
Mayor's greeting
Thessaloniki, a city of culture, free expression, and open horizons, welcomes you to Warehouse D at the Port from Thursday, November 20, for a grand, unique celebration of jazz that we aspire to become a landmark event for our city.
Four days, eleven concerts, forty artists from seven countries in Europe and North Africa present the Open Jazz Festival, a new initiative by the Municipality of Thessaloniki that brings people, sounds, and rhythms together, offering the public a unique experience.
True to our commitment to Thessaloniki as an open music scene all year round and to ensuring a wealth of choices for the public, we give priority to quality, unique aesthetics, improvisation, authenticity, and creative collaboration between Greek and foreign artists who live and breathe the music they serve. Perhaps because jazz is much more than just a genre of music. “Jazz is freedom,” as has been said, it is a way of life, it is emotion, it is creativity, it is simplicity.
In a city with the unique characteristics of Thessaloniki, I am certain that the Open Jazz Festival is here to stay. Because, in the end, jazz perfectly expresses a part of the bustling soul of this city.
Good luck!
With respect
Stelios Angeloudis
Mayor of Thessaloniki
Deputy Mayor of Culture,
Tourism Development & Intermunicipal Cooperation
Dear music lovers,
It is our great pleasure and honor that the Municipality of Thessaloniki is organizing a renewed and international Open Jazz Festival this year! For four days, from Thursday, November 20 to Sunday, November 23, Warehouse D at the Port will be transformed into a cultural hub, hosting the heart of contemporary jazz.
This year’s event will host 40 leading artists from seven different countries, including Germany, Great Britain, Morocco, and North Macedonia. This international lineup, curated by Kostas Makrygiannakis, highlights Thessaloniki’s role as a crossroads of cultures and musical trends.
The Open Jazz Festival honors the roots of jazz, but at the same time dares to open up new horizons in improvisation, flirting with electronica, fusion, Balkan music, and North African rhythms. This thematic expansion reflects our commitment to offering the city’s audience a vibrant and evolving artistic product.
We invite you all to embrace this four-day celebration of sound and improvisation. Enjoy the 11 concerts, feel the pulse of international collaborations, and become part of Thessaloniki’s vibrant music culture.
With respect,
Vasileios Gakis, Deputy Mayor for Culture, Tourism Development, and Intermunicipal Cooperation, Municipality of Thessaloniki