San Sebastian Jazz Festival

The San Sebastian Jazz Festival (official name: Heineken Jazzaldia) is held every year during the third week of July in the Basque city of Donostia (also called San Sebastián), which has been a tourist destination since the 19th century because of its beautiful scenery, history, cultural activity and cuisine. The Festival takes place in the third week of July and lasts for five days.

The festival was founded in 1966, becoming the first jazz festival organised in Spain and one of the oldest in Europe. The Heineken Jazzaldia hosts around a hundred concerts in twelve stages located in different points throughout the city of San Sebastian. Some of these concerts are free and some others are ticketed; and some of the venues are in the open air and some others are indoors. Among these, the shows in Zurriola Beach and the terraces of the Kursaal Auditorium are the most popular. In the 2013 edition, around 155,500 people enjoyed the festival.

The San Sebastian Jazz Festival (Heineken Jazzaldia) takes place every year since 1966 and it is the eldest of Spain and one of the eldest in Europe.

The history of the festival can be linked to that of the contemporary jazz. Many important artists have participated in the festival, such as Charles Mingus,Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Gerry Mulligan, Weather Report, Hank Jones, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, B.B. King, Diana Krall, Van Morrison, Liza Minnelli, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Ray Gelato, amongst many others.

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