Cultural Italy - Umbria Jazz Festival 2008

Jazz is a very young and unusual music style; it was originally created around the turn of the last century in the southern United States from a blend of African and European musical styles. Since then Jazz has gotten more popular during the 20th century. These days one of the biggest Jazz events in Europe takes place in mid-July in Perugia, Italy.

Umbria Jazz Festival 2008 is one of the premier Jazz events of the year in Italy and indeed in Europe as there is no bigger festival dedicated to this intriguing form of music. The festival was originally started in 1973 and has boasted the biggest names in Jazz throughout that time; in 2008 the event will be taking place from Friday 11th to Sunday 20th of July.

These ten days of Jazz, and a few other types of music, will be an unforgettable experience for any aficionado of this musical style. There will be dozens of concerts taking place in the mornings and evenings all over the town centre. Some of the musicians and bands taking part in this years’ festival include The Coolbone Brass Band from New Orleans, the Allan Harris Quintet give a tribute to Nat ‘King’ Cole, Sonny Rollins on his legendary Sax and many others together with R.E.M. and Alicia Keyes.

Some of these concerts are actually free open-air concerts though others will require tickets in such venues as the Arena Santa Giuliana, and the two historical theatres Teatro Morlacchi and Teatro Pavone.

How to get there: Perugia is located right in the middle of Italy some 180kms north of Rome. You would start by taking the A1 north until you get to Orte, where you can take a right onto the E45 which should see you all the way to Perugia. In-between your meals of different types of chocolate you might find time to have a look around the town itself which has some really attractive medieval buildings to look at.

Along with this upcoming Festival, there really is so much to do and see in and around Italy, so why not try our car hire Italy option, or read one of our other Italy blogs and make your holiday to Italy a more memorable one.

If you still have some unanswered questions please ask us and we will do our best to answer them?

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