The 13th Annual Summer Jazz Festival in Krakow

July 7, 2008

New Orleans Day Parade (photo gallery)

The 13th annual Summer Jazz Festival began on July 6 with a day-long series of concerts around Krakow’s main market square and with the now famous New Orleans Day Parade. One of the greatest musical attractions of the 2008 New Orlean's Sunday was the performance of the USAREUR Dixie Band (a US Army band stationed in Schwetzingen, Germany) which gave a three-hour long concert on a stage near "Pod Jaszczurami.” Later on the Dixie Band joined the New Orleans Day Parade and performed a selection of jazz standards along with jazz musicians from Sweden, Hungary, Norway and Poland.  Consul Stephen Barneby and Consul Michelle Riebeling also took part in the parade, following the performers in antique cars brought to Krakow especially for the event.
This year’s Jazz Festival will be full of wonderful concerts by outstanding Polish and international jazz stars. The organizers of the Summer Jazz Festival invited, for example, the legendary American jazz musicians Branford Marsalis and Lee Konitz to participate in the "Krakow Saxophone Summit" which took place at the Philharmonic on Monday, July 7.
The main venue for the month-long festival will be Piwnica Pod Baranami, a cellar club at 27 Rynek Glowny (Main Sq.) where jazz concerts are scheduled every night.

More information on the Summer Jazz Festival can be found at: http://www.cracjazz.com/