We’re once again partnering with the Bahrain Jazz Fest and this month we catch up with Jude D’Souza, Managing Director of Clockwork and the show’s producer.

Where did the idea for the festival first come from and why jazz specifically?
Jazz is a widely appealing genre of music that cuts across ages, backgrounds and cultures. In recent times, jazz has seen another renaissance with modern artistic blends creating new sounds from a very intrigued youth! Way back in 2017, the BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest grew out of this very idea to build a culture among communities that celebrate the many aspects of jazz music. The perfect platform for this was to create a festival with world-class production values aligned to international standards, bringing the best of international jazz to Bahrain and showcasing the best of Bahrain to the world. The festival has also allowed us to promote jazz education among the youth of Bahrain through many outreach programmes.

When was the first Jazz Fest? Please tell us about the process for getting it set up in the beginning.
Established in 2017, BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest has now grown to be the most awaited music festival in Bahrain’s event calendar, attracting over 20,000 visitors since its inception. The festival has hosted more than 100 jazz musicians from Bahrain and around the world and is now firmly placed on the world jazz map, growing in strength with every year. As with every festival trying to prove its worth, the challenges in the beginning were very real for us to face which included everything from generating budgets to, more importantly, hosting international artists for the first edition. An internationally benchmarked festival is all about the experience and we were very pleased to have major organisations that believed in our idea and supported our ambitions, especially our presenting partner BNP Paribas and strategic partner Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority. Once the plan was in place, a few months of artist scouting took place which gave us our first ever BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest lineup. There are many priceless memories built over the years, especially from the first edition.

What criteria do you use for engaging artists?
The artistic balance is very important for the festival and helps us make jazz more accessible and appealing to a wide cross-section of audiences. The selection usually starts at the beginning of the year and goes through many brainstorming sessions, listening sessions within our artistic committee. We have a wide range of artists and groups in jazz, blues, swing jazz, funk, nu jazz and more. Our lineups must meet the balance of:

• Popular crowd appeal
• Showstopping award-winning international artists
• Integration of Bahrain’s jazz talent
• Gender parity
• Integration with artists supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation.

Do you look for a specific percentage of internationals alongside local performers?
We maintain an average split of approximately 70% international and 30% from Bahrain. We are very proud of the fact that Bahrain’s bands get to share the same stages as our acclaimed international artists.

Please tell us about the community outreach programme that the festival has established.
The BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest has always been committed to giving back to society, in its quest to achieve its sustainable goals. The festival follows a sustainable policy based on three major indicators. Every year we endeavour to increase the quotient among all indicators:
Environmental: We use online or electronic documents for all contracts, order forms and media communications. Press kits are made available to journalists via USB keys so they can download information to their handheld devices. We are the first music festival in Bahrain to adopt cashless ticketing and purchasing, removing the need to use paper tickets or hard cash for purchases. We have removed the need for printed festival guides by developing our own mobile app for easy information access, helping save paper.
Economic: We have employed local-only suppliers for sound and lights equipment, construction, fabrication and merchandise. We ensure 100% of all food vendors used at BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest are Bahrain-based. We have provided revenue generation opportunities to local-only micro businesses and artisans through market space at the festival. We provide employment opportunities to approximately 100 contractual employees and six full-time employees for staging and managing the event.
Community: We have pushed more than USD100,000 back into society through cash awards for locally talented musicians, artist fees and appearance engagements through partners such as BNP Paribas. We have maintained sustained promotion of local jazz artists by granting performance opportunities to young talented Bahraini jazz artists on the main festival stage and community stages alongside international artists. We have provided free jazz education opportunities to the music communities through workshops, master classes etc.

How was the festival affected by the pandemic?
On the face of it, it’s now established that the events industry was the worst hit by the pandemic and the music industry was among the hardest hit communities within the industry. As with festivals around the world, the effects were far reaching for us financially and artistically. We have always considered ourselves to be a forward-thinking festival and quickly began to explore the idea of pivoting to a live streaming format in 2020. The revised format featured six Bahrain bands each streaming a high-quality webcast jazz show over six days. This was supported by a Covid-compliant, in-person workshop featuring Paul Lay, the eminent French jazz pianist who is also a BNP Paribas Foundation supported artist. The following year, in 2021, we staged the first live event in Bahrain in the wake of the pandemic, where we programmed yet another revised format with one international band and five Bahrain bands. Our long-lasting, trusted relationship with BNP Paribas and their wholehearted commitment to developing jazz with us took us a long way in those dark days, for which we are ever thankful.

Were you surprised at how well it was received last year as the first live event at the tail end of the pandemic?
Bringing back the festival after the Covid restrictions were lifted in 2021 was not an easy task. There were many guidelines indicated by the Ministry of Health that needed to be followed to ensure the safety of the people. After many obstacles and hiccups, we chose a brand-new and exotic venue in Solymar Beach, which gave the festival a completely fresh feel and hosted 2,000 festival visitors. Our aligned approach with the festival’s strategic partner, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, helped ensure that all our efforts were within applied Covid-compliant guidelines. As with every year, we ensured that the lineup of bands and quality of entertainment for our audiences was uncompromised, even with a change in format. The BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest has always been Bahrain’s most awaited musical event and hence, having it live again after two long years was all that the music enthusiasts could ask for. The response was overwhelming and a reward for all our efforts.

What’s in store for this year – venue, capacity, acts etc?
The BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest (BJF) comes back in 2022 with the theme ‘Jazz Unmasked’ bringing together community and music. This year’s event promises to be the most memorable one yet. Grammy-nominated artists, stellar acts, educational programmes and events, plus one-of-a-kind partnerships which ensure a memorable experience for the festival goer. We go back to our much-loved outdoor family-friendly format this year. The main art theme for BJF 2022 pays homage to Bahrain while paying tribute to the genre of jazz music, knowing that this music “just takes over” body, mind and soul when listening to it. Ethereal and musical, the experience causes the audience to lose themselves, immersing their joys completely into the BNP Paribas Bahrain Jazz Fest experience.
The event is on December 2, from noon to 10pm at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club. With 13 jazz bands from around the world and Bahrain, two stages, day/night markets, a dedicated Food Village and food and beverage areas, along with family-friendly zones and activation areas, our 2022 festival promises a curated experience that friends and family can enjoy. The festival will also feature the Jazz Trail, a series of events that celebrates jazz across Bahrain which will be organised during the whole month of November leading up to December 2. The 2022 Jazz Trail includes free concerts in malls, cafes and restaurants as well as an extended school outreach programme engaging international jazz educators and youth. Tickets will go live on October 1 on our website and will start with an early bird discount special. Most of our festival tickets are sold in advance as the there is a limited capacity, so it is always good to get them as early as possible. We are also happy to say that there will be festival packages for our international visitors, done with our strategic partner, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, which will include flights, hotel accommodation, festival tickets, tours and more!
All information regarding the festival is available on our website. We will also be releasing our revamped mobile apps that will be available on the App Store and Google Play, which is the definitive guide for all festival visitors this year. ✤

GO: VISIT WWW.BAHRAINJAZZFEST.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.