Event info

The city center will be alive with the sound of jazz during September 4th to 8th when the annual Reykjavik Jazz Festival takes place. This year’s festival is the 30th and with the local jazz scene really thriving at the moment there is a great opportunity to hear some of Iceland’s most prominent jazz artists as well as a few very exciting collaborations between local and international musicians. As is the customary practice a select few critically acclaimed foreign acts will take to the stage as well.

A few examples of exciting and notable acts for this year’s festival are the Anglo-Scandinavian trio Phronesis, Tori Freestone Trio (UK), and two collaboration projects of local and international musicians. One of those is led by local tenor player Jóel Pálsson, Swedish bassist Torbjörn Zetterberg and Portuguese trumpet player Susana Santos Silva and the other is led by our own Scott McLemore on drums and English trumpet player Laura Jurd.

The opening day, Wednesday September 4th, sees the annual “Jazz Parade” kick off the festival activities. It will head off from Lucky Records by Hlemmur Square at 17:00 with drums rolling and horns blaring in an appropriately jazzy fashion. The parade will go through the city center and come to an end in the town hall where the opening ceremony takes place at 17:30. A stimulating cocktail of music and short speeches will be served to the audience as an appetizer for the evening’s menu in the national gallery (Listasafn Íslands) and the rest of the festival.

The venues hosting Reykjavik Jazz Festival 2019 are Listasafn Íslands (the national gallery),
Tjarnarbíó, Hard Rock Cafe, Ráðhús Reykjavíkur (town hall) and Borgarbókasafnið Grófinni (the city library at Grófin).

The festival pass gives access to all evening concerts taking place during the festival and to the afternoon concert on Sunday September 8th when vocalist María Magnúsdóttir and her band will honour Anita O’Day. Please note that only a limited number of festival passes will be on sale. Evening passes are also on offer for each day and/or a separate ticket to Magnúsdóttir’s Sunday concert.

The price for the festival pass is 18.900 ISK and evening passes cost 6.900 ISK. A separate ticket for the Sunday concert costs 3.900 ISK.

You can find all necessary information and the festival program at reykjavikjazz.is