Celebration of 50 years of North Sea Jazz
The festival started with six venues, three hundred musicians, and about nine thousand visitors. In that first year, legends such as Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stan Getz were on the program. Since then, North Sea Jazz has grown into a leading international event and an icon of jazz music. With 17 stages, approximately 1,300 artists, and around 90,000 visitors annually, the festival brings together a wide range of jazz and related genres.
We are celebrating our anniversary by living the present, looking ahead, and reflecting on the past. We do this together with the people who have made North Sea Jazz what it is today: artists, visitors, creators, and partners.
This is also reflected in the program. Fifty Years of North Sea Jazz does not tell just one story, but shows how jazz continually evolves and produces diverse currents. During this anniversary edition, those worlds come together. You can find a comprehensive overview under Highlights in the menu.
Opening by Her Majesty Queen Máxima
The festival will be festively opened on Friday, July 10, by Her Majesty Queen Máxima. The opening takes place at 2:30 PM. After the opening ceremony, Queen Máxima will speak with representatives of the North Sea Jazz Festival and with partner organizations involved in the jazz festival's anniversary. This will be followed by a tour of the festival grounds, during which Queen Máxima will engage in conversation with artists and visitors to North Sea Jazz. The visit concludes with attending the first performances of the festival day, including those by the KC Jazz Big Band and singer Jalen Ngonda.
NSJ50 Afterparties
Each festival day is festively concluded with an NSJ50 Afterparty. On Friday, Questlove will be behind the turntables, on Saturday it is Gilles Peterson's turn, and on Sunday Anderson .Paak will close the festival as DJ Pee .Wee.
Podcast, film and exhibitions
On Sunday, during the festival, an episode of the NTR podcast series 50 Years North Sea Jazz will be recorded, in which editor Adrienne Tilanus goes in search of untold stories from the rich history of the festival. The series has been available to listen to weekly since June 1.
In the short film North Sea Jazz 50: The Artist’s Take, artists speak for themselves. Documentary filmmakers Hans Hermans and Martin Maat interviewed them during the 2025 edition about what North Sea Jazz means to them. The film is screened daily prior to the program at Hudson and Amazon, and is also available to watch online.
Additionally, the photo exhibition 50 Years of North Sea Jazz Photography is on display at the festival, featuring work by photographers Rico D’Rozario, Paul Bergen, and Andreas Terlaak. Together with naming partner NN, North Sea Jazz also presents the North Sea Jazz 50 Years Experience, an interactive journey through five decades of festival history.
Personal memories from visitors, artists, crew, and fans can be found at mystory.northseajazz.com.
The anniversary in the city
The anniversary is also being celebrated outside Rotterdam Ahoy. On Sunday, July 5, Dunya Festival returns to Rotterdam, where North Sea Jazz will present several program items with international guests and Rotterdam musicians. The program includes, among other things, a workshop and performance in collaboration with Rotterdam Brass Band School, and performances by La Rouge and the British tuba player and composer Theon Cross.
Additionally, Assia Brass Benin brings music to the Nieuwe Binnenweg during the final weekend of North Sea Round Town.
