The good news first: As organisers announced in Dresden today, the 52nd INTERNATIONALES DIXIELAND FESTIVAL will take place from 12 to 19 May 2024, continuing the world’s largest and oldest traditional jazz festival’s tradition. However, there are dark clouds ahead.
The programme and bands are confirmed; selected concerts go on sale on 8 September 2023. Planned are 14 international and 20 German bands and soloists from 11 countries, with 49 events offering 243 minutes of music.
Sächsische Festival Vereinigung e.V. (SFV) builds on the consistently positive response to outstanding young international bands in May 2023, bringing a fresh, musically exciting high-quality mixture to city stages. Newcomers include Louis Armstrong Celebration Band (Netherlands), Swing to Bop (France) and Six Foot Stompers (Denmark). Returns by The OhnO! Jazzband, Lamarotte (Netherlands) and Steve “Big Man” Clayton (United Kingdom) are planned.
Comödie Dresden and neighbouring Boulevardtheater Dresden host two contrasting new events, offering close encounters with live jazz’s intricate ingredients. The globally unique, popular Riverboat-Shuffle returns in 2024 alongside the Kulturpalast concert and established favourites.
First events go on sale Friday, 8 September 2023, online or by telephone through Etix and nationwide outlets. Programme, line-up, venues and ticket information are available from that day at www.dixielandfestival-dresden.com.
A painful decision: currently, the popular free Dresdner Jazz-Meile and Dixieland-Parade will not take place in 2024
Anticipation of the 52nd edition is far from unclouded. Fears expressed after the 2023 festival appear to be becoming a sad certainty.
SFV chairman and production director Dr Steffen Kiefer states: “The full-scale 2024 programme is ready; implementation could begin immediately. Funding offset increased free-event costs in 2023, but public subsidies for the next festival currently appear unlikely. New, substantially higher financial and bureaucratic hurdles from the city also force major cuts to our best-attended free offerings: the three-day Dresdner Jazz-Meile between the main station and Taschenberg and the traditional finale parade from Terrassenufer into the historic centre. Neither can currently proceed.”
Between 2022 and 2023 alone, bands cost 15% more, stage/sound equipment 15%, staffing services including medical/security 33%, and logistics including barriers and electricity/water installation 38%. Ticket revenue fell 7%. Accommodation tax extended to business stays in July adds more than €2,000 for visiting musicians next year.
Almost half the music minutes SFV has provided free for years would disappear for the first time. Losing these traditional attractions means a six-figure attendance reduction for Dresden’s second-largest festival and measurable local revenue losses, especially in tourism and retail.
“This feel-good festival, half free and attracting up to 450,000 annually, must for the first time cut core events synonymous with the festival for audiences and integral to decades of tradition,” says Hendrik Meyer.
Visitors and musicians have long valued their festival’s unique atmosphere onstage and behind the scenes as an international traditional jazz centre. “Cuts are deeply painful, above all for audiences, but unfortunately unavoidable in current circumstances,” Meyer adds.
What next? The City of Dresden must act
Organisers still hope the 2024 festival can retain its customary scale. They seek a municipal commitment to a leading Dresden cultural asset and a central contact/coordination office that understands requirements, supports applications pragmatically, enables direct communication and recognises the festival’s importance.
“The city should reconsider requirements such as security plans, reduce permit fees and minimise bureaucracy in all applications in favour of practical solutions. This is entirely possible. It would relieve all organisers, preserve our inclusive offering and release time and money for improved quality and scope, or at least maintained standards, and wider audiences despite rising costs,” says Kiefer.
Over more than 50 years, the INTERNATIONALES DIXIELAND FESTIVAL has established itself as the world’s largest and oldest traditional jazz festival. Its extensive accessible events for all ages, genuine inclusion and musical diversity form an annual fixture for hundreds of thousands of German and international fans, enhance Dresden’s image and provide enduring tourism and economic benefits, organisers state.
Programme and tickets
The provisional 52nd edition programme, performers and venues will be published on 8 September at www.dixielandfestival-dresden.com.
Tickets are available through Etix, on 0351 30 70 80 00, regional outlets including Dresden Information, Florentinum and Schillergalerie concert box offices and DDV Lokale, all Etix outlets nationwide, and venue daytime/evening box offices.
The originally planned 52nd INTERNATIONALES DIXIELAND FESTIVAL in figures
Bands and soloists:
international: 14, other German acts: 10, Dresden: 11
Music:
14,575 minutes (= 243 hours), including 5,635 free (= 94 hours)
Events: 50
Stages/performance sites: 50
