How to Survive the North Sea Jazz Festival

I managed to score the front row for the Caro Emerald performance!

This past weekend around 70,000 people invaded the city of Rotterdam for the annual North Sea Jazz festival. For three days the sounds and rhythms of jazz and other music genres floated through the air and landed in the ears of bouncing and swaying music lovers.

The first edition of the North Sea Jazz Festival took place in 1976 and has quickly grown into a must visit event even if you aren’t a fan of jazz. With big name performers including Lenny Kravitz, Caro Emerald, Van Morrison (previous years have seen Prince, Jamiroquai and Macy Gray) there is almost always something for everyone.

Attending North Sea Jazz is a little like an initiation by fire with very little information about how things work on a practical basis. Here are ten tips I learned from my initiation into the world of jazz. Hopefully they will help you make the most of next year’s event if you decide to attend.

Prepare to Spend Money – You’ll pay for the toilet, for the food, for the drinks and for the merchandise – so don’t think that once you have your ticket you are all set. The North Sea Jazz Festival utilises a token system for the food and drinks, which works pretty good. Just don’t forget to return your unused tokens at the end of the evening for a refund.

Plan Ahead – With over 50 performances to choose from in just one day, you’d do really well to plan what you want to see before you arrive on the day. If you aren’t familiar with a lot of the artists (or don’t think you are – who knew I knew so many songs by Chic and Nile Rodgers!) give yourself some extra time to learn more about them. Many of the artists have a link to a Spotify playlist which you can find on the North Sea Jazz website. This made life a whole lot easier!

Tokens are the name of the game

They Switch Stages –  If you walk into the Nile hall just as a performer is finishing and meander to the front avoiding discarded plastic glasses along the way, you might start to think that it was a little too easy to get to the front row with only ten minutes to go before the next performer. You are right. In the Nile hall there are actually two stages next to each other and they switch between the two throughout the day. Luckily it is a regular back and forth switch meaning if you are willing to sacrifice seeing the act before (on the other stage), you should be able to secure the front row for the next performance.

Get There Early – This is particularly true if the performance is in one of the smaller rooms. Except for plus concerts, performances do not have assigned seats and they tend to fill up quickly. If you aren’t in the room before it is full, you’ll find yourself standing outside hoping to get in. You might have to leave an earlier performance before it ends to make it to the next one before it is full. That’s where planning (see above) helps a lot, especially if you make yourself familiar with which locations are smaller rooms and which are gigantic halls.

Try Something New – Prior to North Sea Jazz I had never heard of Dhafer Youssef, now I wonder how I managed without his music. That’s one of the highlights of the festival – finding and enjoying new music. So don’t just stick with the safe options, be daring and try something new.

The Lenny Kravitz plus concert

Use the Fast Lane – Running above the main floor is a walkway that has been dubbed “the fast lane”. This isn’t some sort of special VIP line to get you into a performance quicker; it is a pathway that connects different parts of the venue with others and since it isn’t the main pathway it tends to be pretty empty. If you need to get from one room to another quickly, avoid the masses and head upstairs to the fast lane.

Expect Some Chaotic Craziness – For an event that has over a thousand musicians, 150 different performances and thirteen different stages, the North Sea Jazz Festival is incredibly well organised. However, there are the inevitable blips and moments of chaotic craziness. Just roll with them or ask your question to a second person and you should survive just fine.

Later there wasn’t a seat to be found in the indoor “picnic” area

Go Exploring – Ahoy is big. And it only gets bigger the more you go exploring. Extra toilets, new shops and different food stands are around every corner. If there isn’t a burly looking guard standing by the door or fence, check it out.

You Will Get Bumped – There are a lot of people at North Sea Jazz and by a lot I mean around 20,000 – 25,000 people a day. So it is inevitable that you are going to get bumped by someone you don’t know. Whether it is the extra enthusiastic girl next to you during the Caro Emerald concert or the man who doesn’t know what a queue is at the drinks stand, bumping is inevitable.

You’ll Never See it All – Just accept it and enjoy what you do manage to see. You can always go back the next year!

I attended the North Sea Jazz Festival as part of my role as a Holland Ambassador with the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions.