17/01/2025
Brussels Jazz Alert says goodbye with love
It’s with great sadness that we have to inform you that the Brussels Jazz Alert adventure will not take place in 2025. Behind every cultural project, there's always a struggle to get it off the ground and keep it going, driven by passionate dedication and the conviction that these initiatives, dreamt up in the course of sparkling conversations, will do good - for the people, for the artists and for the sector. That's the driving force behind everything. Unfortunately the struggle is fraught with obstacles and sometimes we stumble for good.
We've had a wonderful year in 2024, and we feel blessed to have ended December on a high note, with a sold out memorable concert steeped in a wild atmosphere at Beursschouwburg and a year filled with so many wonderful concerts and encounters.
We were aiming to showcase and support the work and diversity of visions of young Belgian professional artists. Giving them a humble push at the start of their career. Projects such as Wajdi Riahi Trio or Eliott Knuets were just as much a part of it as ECHT!, Bex, echofarmer or This is The Omen (call it jazz or not - we don’t care).
We wanted to reach out to young and diverse audiences. We brought jazz to cafés, we brought electro music to jazz clubs, and we kept our prices very affordable.
In a system like Belgium's, the investors in culture are largely the public services. In 2024, thanks to the support and trust of Vlaamse overheid, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, Sabam for Culture, PlayRight+ and the City of Brussels, we were able to support 7 promising and exciting projects and present them in some of Brussels' finest cultural venues as Beursschouwburg, VK vaartkapoen, Pilar, as well as on stage at the BRU JAZZ WE in front of thousands of people, giving them a unique opportunity for exposure to a wide audience.
Unfortunately, in 2025, the minimum financial resources have not been granted to us. To be more precise, the commission of our most important funding partner decided the project is not of value anymore and didn't renew their funding. We've tried so hard over the last years, and we just don't have the resources to keep going without support.
Our call in December generated 183 applications from all over Belgium (wow, thank you for your engagement
