Europa Jazz Festival

From Thursday, October 23 2008 to Sunday, May 3 2009

An indefatigable attempt to promote music from the margins.

The Europa Jazz Festival is much more than just another anodyne classic jazz festival. Rather than invite once-glorious oldies to come perform for a blasé public, Europa organisers have since 1980 encouraged people to discover a whole mix of music. They have strived to set up a program that is rattle bag of surprises, a musical event which actively promotes new movements and artists rather than simply relying on sure-fire sales.

Instead of being fixed in one place and one venue, as it was in its early days, over time the Europa Jazz Festival has strived to create a 'regionalised' festival. The key to this is a highly-developed promotion and distribution network with strong and long-lasting links between artist, audience and venue.

Europa Jazz has since the 80's managed to create a unique distribution network in the Pays de la Loire and Lower Normandy, so that music can flow from the town centre to the suburbs, from Le Mans to the countryside, from Sarthe to the surrounding region and from the Pays de la Loire to Europe.