It’s curtains for one of the most unique music festivals in the Netherlands. After 38 editions, the combination of cycling in the beautiful Middag-Humsterland and enjoying pure, experimental jazz comes to an end. Attempts to rejuvenate the board of the ZomerJazzFietsTour yielded too little response. And the requirements set by funds for medium-sized events become stricter every year.
So, they decided to stop. With a wry smile.
An informal bike ride through the Reitdiep valley and then admiring improv jazz in small churches and barns. That is the essence of the ZomerJazzFietsTour. These ingredients ensure that the festival is always sold out.
The set-up makes organizing this event labour-intensive. Arranging locations, routes, musicians, tents, financial accountability, guiding visitors, and so on.
Despite the warm help of dozens of local residents, the (volunteer) board members almost have a full-time job organizing it, especially over the summer. Some board members indicate that after decades, it has literally been enough.
The board has tried for years to get new people on the board to take over. But it scares people off when they see how intensive the job is.
Chairman Niels Smit Duyzentkunst understands this. “The enthusiasts are gone, unfortunately,” he laughs. “We ask quite a lot. It just takes up a lot of free time. We can't blame people if they don't want that.”
Apart from the fact that a lot is asked of the core volunteers, regulations also play a role in the decision to stop. Funds set increasingly stricter requirements for events. To remain eligible for structural subsidies, the ZJFT would have to grow or become much smaller. Business manager Jo Willems: “We are too big for the napkin and too small for the tablecloth, as the Dutch saying goes. Of course, you can also rely less on funds, but that would mean the ticket price would have to multiply. Then it becomes a party for the elite. We don't want that. Then it’s no longer the ZomerJazzFietsTour as we once envisioned it.”
So, 2024 will be the last edition. Programmer Marcel Roelofs already has several bands in mind. And there's one more thing. The ZJFT will be missed by the audience, but perhaps even more by the musicians. There are very few events in Europe where more than twenty world-class improv jazz bands perform. And where emerging jazz talent can showcase their skills. The ZJFT collaborates with the Prins Claus Conservatoire to literally provide a stage for students.
That stage will be there one more time. On Saturday, 31 August 2024. A hint: The ZJFT will likely feature a kind of funeral march where all musicians can improvise.
It will be a spectacular final edition. The fortieth. “Yes, formally it’s the 38th,” says Smit Duyzentkunst. “But we want to at least make it to forty. So we just call it the fortieth edition. A bit odd perhaps, but that suits us.”