More than 3,000 persons attended the 18th edition of the Dinant Jazz Festival, held on 27-29 July in Notre-Dame de Leffe, Jean-Claude Laloux, one of the festival’s organisers, said on Sunday. Free concerts organized in Dinant city centre also attracted many visitors.
"It’s certainly one of the most beautiful editions of the festival, both on the musical level and in terms of affluence,” Laloux said. “We had more than 1,300 visitors on Saturday and over the three days we had over 3,000 spectators.
“The saxaphonist Joshua Redman, who was our patron this year, gave three fantastic shows and I would like to highlight in particular his duet with Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine on Sunday evening. Bass guitarist Marcus Miller also set the crowd on fire. With stars like that here in Dinant, it’s an honour for us and we are happy that they public turned out massively.”
This year, four free concerts were also organised on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, on the Croisette, the redesigned esplanade along the Meuse River at Dinant.
“This was a competition for young talents and they really performed well,” Laloux added. “In addition to the public who travelled specially for the occasion, many tourists stopped by. We don’t have the exact figure, but we estimate that a few thousand people attended these concerts. In general, we shouldn’t be far from the figure of 10,000 spectators with the paid concerts.”
The Brussels Times
