Jazz for your ears and your feet
The festival celebrates the swing tradition, featuring some of Norway’s finest musicians dedicated to music made both for close listening and for dancing.
Inspired by the atmosphere of historic African American jazz clubs, the festival places live music at the center and makes space for listening and dancing. We believe you can never have too much live jazz, and present eight bands across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are breaks between concerts to give everyone some breathing room, and after the final concert each evening, DJs keep the night going with the swing jazz classics we love.
You can extend the weekend by going to the jazz-club Cafe Society, pre-party on Thursday. This club also got a dance-floor. (separate tickets).
The festival is non-profit and made possible through the generous support of Bårdar Swing Club, Cafe Society, New Orleans Jazz Workshop, Jazzforum, Oslo Kommune, and Kulturrådet.
Information
The Venue
The beautiful Forstanderskapsalen offers generous space, excellent acoustics, and a hardwood dance floor. Sentralen is centrally located in Oslo and provides bars, a restaurant on site, a café serving pizza, and a rooftop terrace.
The Music
From intimate trios to swinging octets, the festival celebrates and draws inspiration from the swing era, presented with a contemporary sensibility. The focus is on strong time feel, interaction, and music that rewards attentive listening while remaining deeply connected to the dance floor.
Seating and dance floor
There is plenty of seating for those who want to sit back and fully enjoy the performances. We have cosy cafe-tables and a bar.
A dedicated hardwood dance floor is available throughout the festival. Swing jazz was – and continue to be – music made for dancing, and in last year on the first swingjazz festival the floor was very lively with Balboa, slow Balboa, blues and Lindy Hop dancers. Swing DJs will play after the final concert each evening
QUick Info
Tickets: Festival pass and individual concert tickets available
Venue: Sentralen, Oslo
Amenities: Bar, café, restaurant, rooftop terrace, elevator.
Team behind Oslo Swing Jazz Festival:
All info/ticket requests is sent to christian@bardarswingclub.no
Core team:
David Skinner & Christian Bjørn
Volunteers:
Pia Lind & Mikkel Bruvik
Oslo Swing Jazz FestivaL 