Every August, the walls of the Niš fortress become the backdrop for the biggest jazz festival in Southeast Europe – the Nišville Jazz Festival.
This ambience and rich history become a stage for concerts, plays and cinema screenings during the festival days. In addition to musical performances, visitors can enjoy films, theatre, art exhibitions and book promotions.
People mainly come here for the music – a good rhythm that lifts the mood, gentle melodies that relax, socialising and a time to remember. All you need is to surrender to that driving energy! And then, as if time has stopped, only instruments and voices can be heard drifting through the air on the summer festival evening.
As only jazz can, the music evokes feelings and takes listeners from happiness to sadness and back again. The Nišville Festival is a real opportunity to hear quality local and foreign performers in an open space, who represent the musical traditions of different parts of the world.
So far, some of today’s most prominent jazz musicians have participated in the festival, which attracts a large number of fans of this genre from the country and abroad and makes Nišville one of the most visited jazz festivals in Europe. The festival has developed so much that now, in the ten days of the festival, it offers more than 250 different programmes on 16 stages! “The Guardian”, the influential British daily, included Nišville in the world’s top 10 jazz festivals!
Although the Nišville Jazz Festival has so far hosted performers from all over the world, primarily those who promote original American jazz, the special value of the festival lies in nurturing the musical traditions of the Balkans. The music of Serbia and the region is promoted as a new world trend through this genre.
The fastest and most faithful fans of the festival can get tickets at the beginning of the year under special conditions. However, performers also perform on stages that are free of charge. So, there is no excuse not to come to Niš! After all, could anything be better than jazz under the stars?