Pori Jazz

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Pori Jazz is a large international jazz festival, held annually in the small coastal city of Pori, Finland. It is one of the oldest and best known jazz festivals in Europe, having been arranged every year since 1966. The first Pori Jazz festival lasted one weekend and drew about 1500 people; nowadays more than 250,000 people attend the festival that lasts nine days.

Numerous world-famous musicians (including, for example, Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Alicia Keys, Paul Simon, Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Macy Gray, Erykah Badu, Paul Anka, Kanye West, Sting and others) have performed at the festival through the years, as well as lesser-known groups from Finland and elsewhere. Musical genres covered at Pori Jazz include varieties of jazz, blues, soul, funk, hip hop, Afro-Cuban, world music, and occasionally even some forms of pop music.

The main arena of the festival is located in a small nature park named Kirjurinluoto, near the centre of Pori. The festival includes many other venues as well, among them the Jazz street with many free concerts. The most legendary of these smaller venues is a club called Cafe Jazz, which presents world class jazz and jam sessions in a cozy atmosphere. Tickets for the Cafe Jazz weekend concerts are always sold out many months in advance.

See also: list of jazz festivals