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In 2026, it will be 46 years since the traditional, oldest international jazz festival "Birštonas" in Lithuania will be held on the last weekend of March in the cozy resort town of Birštonas. The festival will take place on March 27-29. Since the 1980s, every two years (except in 2020 due to the pandemic), the jazz played here has long earned this resort the title of the Mecca of Lithuanian jazz. After all, jazz "pilgrims" are attracted here from all over Lithuania, and not only from there. In a town with only 2.9 thousand inhabitants, almost the same number listen to jazz once every 2 years - 3 thousand jazz listeners! Therefore, the radio and TV recordings of this festival are perhaps the most comprehensive document of the history of Lithuanian jazz. The Jazz Forum in Birštonas eventually gave the residents of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda the impetus to organize similar events in their cities.
Birštonas Jazz Festival is not only the oldest, but also the most democratic Lithuanian jazz forum, presenting the most diverse aspects of Lithuanian jazz, a variety of genre directions and styles: from Dixieland to the experimental, innovative searches of today's jazz. Its program is also capacious - a real jazz marathon, usually presenting about 20 groups over 3 weekend days. The largest part of the festival program consists of Lithuanian jazz musicians, so the Birštonas Jazz Festival is like a mirror reflecting the face of Lithuanian jazz - both those making their debut on the jazz scene and musicians who have already achieved international recognition, for whom the Birštonas stage once became a springboard to the big, international jazz stages, play here. The stage of the Birštonas Jazz Festival is open not only to mature, famous jazzmen of the country, but also to young debuting musicians.
