Brussels Jazz Marathon will celebrate 20 years of existence with no less than 700 musicians and 250,000 spectators from May 22nd to May 24th, announced the organisers on Thursday. The entire city of Brussels will be involved in celebrating jazz music, with over 250 free concerts on 5 stages and in over 80 establishments, as well as all sorts of events throughout the weekend. For 3 days, the capital will resonate with jazz, thanks to free outdoor concerts on stages set up on the Grand Place, at the Sablon, on Place Sainte-Catherine, Place Fernand Coq and Place du Luxembourg. The jazz marathon will carry on indoors as well, in 84 clubs, cafes, and hotels.
The festival is betting on Belgian talent, with "Les bandits de Belleville", "Boogie Belgique", Bilou Doneux, Bruno Castellucci and Toine Thys, as well as international artists such as Bonga from Angola, or DJ Darkmatter from the U.K., who “will set Place du Luxembourg alight,” promises Jacobien Tamsma, in charge of scheduling events. “The participants are slightly more international, but we are focussing on Belgian artists. We have always aimed for Brussels Jazz Marathon to be an introduction to Belgian jazz,” she also explains.
The festival will be dominated as well by children’s events, with the “Mini Marathon” fun scheme at the Sablon on Saturday, May 23th, and also an introduction to dance with the "Swingin' Brussels" event at “La Tentation” all weekend. Background music for shoppers is scheduled in the city centre where all the shops will open on Sunday May 24th.
Once again this year; the STIB will be providing free "Jazz" buses to and from the different venues on the evenings of Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd.
(Source: Belga)
