National Youth Jazz Festival

National Youth Jazz Festival
Stirling High School
Gleneagles Road
East London 5241
England UK

National Arts Festival has been running in Grahamstown (Eastern Cape, South Africa http://www.nafest.co.za) since 1974, and is the world’s second-largest single cultural festival, attracting performers in all art forms from around South Africa and all over the world. National Youth Jazz Festival is sponsored directly by Standard Bank, who sponsor jazz events regularly around the country—has been running for 15 years, as has the National Youth Jazz Festival (NYJF).

The two festivals now run as a single entity, organised by the same administrative team, which provides a forum for sound education at the same time as a vibrant performance stage of aesthetic integrity, with the intention of showcasing the variety and depth of South African jazz; providing a unique intercultural opportunity with top international musicians; and teaching the top young players in the country the essence of jazz.

The Standard Bank Jazz Festival runs for the full 10 days of the National Arts Festival and caters for a variety of jazz styles. The festival incorporates the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival for the first 6 days of the festival, which brings together 250 of the top young jazz musicians in the country (who audition to get into the National Youth and National Schools Jazz Bands), 35 jazz educators and 80 jazz performers from South Africa and around the world.

http://www.youthjazz.co.za/