Baltic Focus at jazzahead!

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been announced as the partner countries of the international jazz fair jazzahead! in 2027. It is a significant moment not only for each national scene but for the whole Baltic region.

What is jazzahead!

Held every April in Bremen, Germany, “jazzahead!” is the largest jazz fair of its kind in Europe and one of the most influential forums for this music. Since the first fair in 2006 it has grown into a major cultural event: every year about 3,300 delegates from 66 countries – musicians, promoters, record labels, agencies and festivals – attend, and some 25,000 visitors drop by.

The international music fair with an integrated showcase festival is focused mostly on jazz, while the Bremen festival is aimed at a wider audience. In 2026 jazzahead! took place for the 20th time, and during it the baton was passed to the Baltic countries as the next year’s partner countries.

What Baltic Focus means

• showcase concerts in the main programme and at the opening concert,
• wider participation of music professionals,
• networking events,
• joint promotional material,
• a larger exhibition area presenting each country separately.

For several years now the Baltic countries have appeared at jazzahead! not as three separate countries but with one “Baltic Booth”, where Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia give joint presentations. The Baltic Focus for 2027 is coordinated by Music Estonia and Jazz Estonia (Estonia), the Latvian Music Information Centre (Latvia) and the Lithuanian Jazz Union (Lithuania), with the support of the Baltic Culture Fund and other partners.

“We have taken part in jazzahead! since 2013, and for the last five years we have been working purposefully to become a partner of this event. We have the chance to show what Lithuanian jazz is like – alive, diverse and worthy of international attention.”

Showcase programme: 9 places for the Baltic countries

The jazzahead! showcase programme is a chance to present your music live to an international audience of music industry professionals. In total 38 artists and bands will be selected, each performing a 30–45 minute concert in Bremen. This year as many as 9 places are reserved for artists from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

• Applications are accepted from 25 August to 30 September.
• Most band members must live in Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania.
• The artist must be represented by a registered participant with an all-days ticket; you can also register yourself.
• Applications are assessed by international expert juries in three stages; what matters most is musical quality and the ability to perform at an international professional level.

We strongly urge you not to leave your application to the last days: getting to know the system and the structure of the application for the first time can take a while, so set aside an hour or two. If you are unsure whether your project is “good enough”, apply anyway.

Sources: jazzahead.de, Jazz Estonia, LJU news. This text was compiled from these sources and still needs to be checked.