Jazzaldia

July arrives and San Sebastian is full of tourists, there are children and teenagers everywhere enjoying their holidays, it is hot and sunny (at times), there are the Carmen festivities in the port and at the end of the month the city’s Jazz Festival, better known as Jazzaldia, is held. So we can say that July is a good month to visit Donosti.

The San Sebastian Jazz Festival, or Donostiako Jazzaldia in Basque, began in 1966, making it the oldest jazz festival in Spain and one of the oldest in Europe. The idea for its foundation came about after Imanol Olaizola, head of the Music Commission of the Centre of Attraction and Tourism (CAT), attended a jazz concert in Paris in 1964, where he saw the enthusiasm of the audience and decided to bring this style of music to San Sebastian. And although it took a couple of years to organise it, the first edition of the festival was inaugurated in September 1966.

The 1966 edition, by the way, is the first and only one held in September, all the others having been in July.

And from the beginning, the Jazzaldia has been one of the unmissable events on the calendar of San Sebastian, not only for the concerts of great international jazz musicians who perform on the main stages, such as the Kursaal Auditorium, the Victoria Eugenia Theatre and the Plaza de la Trinidad; but also for the free concerts of different styles of music that can be enjoyed on the terraces of the Kursaal and on the Zurriola beach. Every year more than 150,000 people enjoy live music, whether in concerts by local artists who are just starting out, or by renowned artists with years of career behind them.

Among the best known names in the world of jazz and blues who have performed at our Jazzaldia are Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Diana Krall, Van Morrison, Liza Minelli, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, who brought together around 14,000 people in 1981. Some of them have repeated several times, on different stages of the festival.

However, the most special setting is undoubtedly the Plaza de la Trinidad, where the artists value the proximity to the public, but also the exceptional surroundings. It is not every day that a concert takes place in a square designed by Peña Ganchegui, surrounded by a mountain (Urgull), a 16th century convent church (San Telmo Museum), houses dating from before 1813, an 18th century basilica (Santa María del Coro) and a handball court crowned by a gastronomic society.

One of the most devoted repeaters and most in love with the festival is Jamie Cullum, the English pianist and singer has come numerous times in recent years, and one of his indispensable requirements is, in addition to giving a concert on one of the main stages, to play on the Zurriola beach. In fact, one of the festival’s attendance records is his, in 2019 he brought together 53,000 people. The writer of these lines, in fact, has seen him a couple of times and deeply regrets not being able to see him a third time this year.

But without a doubt, the absolute attendance record belongs to Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan gave a concert for peace together with Mikel Laboa in 2006 in which 83,000 people attended. Other great concerts were Glory Gaynor, with 45,000 attendees in 2016 or Patti Smith with 20,000 in 2010.

So, if you are in Donosti in July, you can’t miss the Jazzaldia, we are sure that you will enjoy live music like no one else and that, even if you don’t particularly like jazz, you will find a concert to attend without a doubt.