Welcome to jazzahead! Bremen, April 22-25 2026 — Partner country Sweden
Jazzahead is the vibrant global meeting place for jazz music happening every year in Bremen, Germany. 2026 marks an important step in the festival’s history. For the 20th anniversary, Sweden has been invited to be the partner country and we want from the Swedish organizing group warmly welcome all international partners and friends to 5 days of talks, events, meetings, exchange of ideas an most of all discover new music. Sweden has the opportunity to present 8 Wonderful jazz acts that you can read more about below . More news on additional artists and events will be published here in the coming months.
jazzahead! is launched with a Grand Opening where Norrbotten Big Band will showcase three brilliant artist collaborations. From U.S. Knower (Genevieve Artadi och Louis Cole), the Swedish singer Josefin Cronholm and saxophonist Fredrik Ljungqvist. We will shortly publish the program for the Clubnight and of course, don’t miss the award ceremony of the German Jazz Prize on the last day. Read the full release from jazzahead! below.
What is jazzahead! and how to take part
jazzahead! has become the world’s leading and most global industry event in the jazz sector, with around 3,000 trade participants from over 60 nations. Agents, labels, bookers, managers, festivals and clubs discover the young jazz scene and more established artist takes further steps in the careers.
The fair is essential for professionals to discover the music live together with the local audience. In 2025 jazzahead! sold 23.000 tickets to more than 150 shows.I
jazzahead! has developed and grown steadily, and in its own completely unique way. For this we have to thank our partners at federal and state level who have supported us right from the beginning.
The media have also supported the expos from the start – from Radio Bremen for ARD to numerous specialist magazines.
Today, 140 to 170 accredited journalists report on the event annually, around half of these come from abroad.’
You will need a registration to take part in the trade fair either as a delegate or exhibitor. The fair offers a wide variety of possibilities for exposure from the delegate database to stands for participants that decides to take part as exhibitor. 38 acts are selected for the four modules and you find the full list here:. Very soon the Clubnight program will be published with more than hundred additional concerts all over Bremen. At jazzahead! you will be able to experience the artist in front of a large curious local audience.
Official Swedish jazzahead! showcases 2026
Contact persons for the Swedish Partnership
Maria Rylander, Project Manager Göteborg Artist Center/Knutpunkt
Ragnar Berthling, Director Musikcentrum Öst
The organizations behind the Swedish partnership:
The collaboration around the Swedish partnership has been going one for years and behind it is a consortium of several organisations in the swedish music industry. We work closely with the Swedish embassy in Berlin and their department for support of Sweden.
Göteborg Artist Center/Knutpunkt (project lead): An organization supporting music in the independent culture industry since 1995. Knutpunkt was formed 2017 and has obtained a crucial importance for international collaborations and the live scene of jazz outside the large cities.
Musikcentrum: An artist-driven membership organization that has been working since 1970 to improve conditions for professional musicians and artists, and which has been active at jazzahead! and in a number of other international contexts since 2011.
Export Music Sweden: EXMS plays a key role in the initiative and has been providing the Swedish infrastructure at jazzahead! for more than 10 years, while also incorporating the initiative into its broader strategy for music exports.
Stim: We are happy to have one of the world's strongest copyright societies behind you. Stim will ensure that jazz composers are also in focus
Swedish Jazz: One of the organizations that began working with jazzahead! early on and which organizes nearly 100 of Sweden's jazz clubs.
The campaign has a basic support from Kulturrådet, Stim and Skap (