Osnabrück, in May 2024

The POLYCHROM open-air jazz festival will take place for the fourth time on Saturday, June 1, 2024 from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on two stages on the market square in the center of Osnabrück, anyone interested in music can experience seven different jazz artists in the open air free of charge. There will also be a colorful supporting program.

"How nice it would be if the central location of the festival could inspire some people who are out and about in the city to enjoy jazz again," says festival initiator Luka Kleine, beaming. "Once again this year, we have such a colorful mix of jazz artists that there is basically something for everyone," Kleine continues. "Starting the festival with a marching band that parades through the streets and ends up on the market square came to us quite quickly and is a powerful, strong start," adds booker Anna Suzuki. Now in its fourth year, the two initiators of the POLYCHROM open-air jazz festival are still passionate about jazz and about bringing the diversity of jazz to even more people. This year, HEXA will open the festival as a ten-piece band with their motto Marching goes Techno. Afterwards, the young jazz formation Elias Brieden Quintett will play with a classical jazz line-up before the Caribbean-American singer and songwriter Sera Kalo takes us into cross-genre musical worlds with her voice. Another impressive female voice is Natalie Greffel, a Mozambican-Danish singer, instrumentalist, composer and arranger whose lyrics deal a lot with the cultural connection between Mozambique and Brazil. As the penultimate jazz band, KUHN FU present what they themselves call psychedelic jazz punk, performed by four band members from four different countries. Finally, the big stage is completely filled as the 15-piece Jazzrausch Bigband performs. With an average of 80 concerts a year, it is one of the most successful big bands in the world. At their concerts in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, they bring jazz fans and dance fans together with their powerful sound, groove and enormous stage presence.

There is also a POLYCHROM combo again this year, which was founded at the start of the semester in April under the direction of Anna-Lena Schnabel at the Institute of Music at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and will make its first appearance at the POLYCHROM open-air jazz festival. The performances of the seven bands will alternate between the two stages. In addition, activities by Kunstraum Hase29 and Theaterwerkstatt Bethel will offer all interested parties an inspiring supporting program with live art on site, body painting and performances. "Of course, the music remains the focus of the festival," says Marco Gausmann, Managing Director of Musikbüro Osnabrück e.V. and co-organizer of the festival, "but we regularly notice how good it is to appeal to many of people's senses at the same time. That is also what POLYCHROM diversity means."

"We are delighted to be supporting the POLYCHROM open-air jazz festival for the third time," says Christian Schiffbänker, Chairman of the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation. "In addition, we are all very happy to have found another location in the center of Osnabrück with the market square as this year's venue, where it is (once again) possible to play on two stages and thus bring diverse jazz with full force into the heart of the city," adds Birgit Bohnenkamp, Chairwoman of the Foundation.

Further information can be found at: www.polychrom-jazz.de

Background information: The Polychrom Festival was initiated by former jazz student Luka Kleine. Together with Musikbüro Osnabrück e.V., he organized the festival for the first time in 2021. In the meantime, former jazz student Anna Suzuki has joined the organization and is responsible for booking. The team is now complete with Lotte Kohl-Gorski (sound engineering) and Insa Vogt (public relations). The aim of the jazz festival is to make the wide variety of jazz projects visible to the public and to inspire those interested in jazz music.