Italy’s first network of environmentally sustainable jazz festivals
Jazz Takes The Green is the network of eco-sustainable jazz festivals, the first Italian experience of aggregating cultural events that have the Green cause at heart: Bergamo Jazz is part of it and, as part of the Compraverde Buygreen Forum and the Compraverde – Culture in Green 2022 Award, received a plaque with special mention for its commitment to eco-sustainability in recent years.
Made up of 30 festivals geographically distributed among 15 regions, from North to South, Jazz Takes The Green is an initiative that arose thanks to the synergy between Green Fest, Fondazione Ecosistemi and I-Jazz, an association that brings together the majority of Italian jazz festivals. The foundations were laid in June 2020 during a conference that started from the assumption that making and proposing music, and therefore moving people and committing economic resources, cannot today disregard the commitment to spread universal values such as respect for the environment, sustainability, protection of human rights, tolerance, and inclusion. All this with the aim of sharing good practices with the public.
The following festivals grouped by region are part of Jazz Takes The Green: Monfrà Jazz Festival and Novara Jazz Festival (Piedmont), Ambria Jazz Festival, Bergamo Jazz and Associazione 4.33 (Lombardy), Sile Jazz (Veneto), Parma Jazz Frontiere (Emilia-Romagna), Gezmataz (Liguria), Fano Jazz By The Sea, Risorgimarche and Ancona Jazz Festival (Marche), Pescara Jazz Festival and Il Jazz Italiano per le terre del sisma (Abruzzo), Empoli Jazz Festival, Grey Cat Festival and Festival Mutamenti (Tuscany), Gezziamoci (Basilicata), Locomotive Jazz Festival, Locus Festival and Think Positive (Puglia), Termoli Jazz Festival (Molise), Peperoncino Jazz Festival and Catanzaro Jazz Fest (Calabria), Festivalle dei Templi, Battiati Jazz Festival, Sicilia Jazz Festival (Sicily), Time In Jazz, Musica sulle Bocche, Forma e Poesia nel Jazz Festival and Pedras et Sonus Jazz Festival (Sardinia).
Jazz Takes The Green members have set themselves the goal of encouraging the conversion of jazz festivals from high environmental impact events to Green events through the adoption of the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) developed as part of the GreenFEST Project – Green Festivals and Events through Sustainable Tenders, and listed in a special Check List.
“Basic” environmental criteria include: reduction in consumption of natural resources; sustainable mobility; energy consumption; waste management; elimination of plastic use; use of stage sets created with environmentally friendly materials; and the choice of locations where festivals are held. It will also be the task of the members to report on the environmental and social impacts of the festivals. Jazz Takes The Green also intends to pose as an interlocutor with the MIC – Ministry of Culture, so that the adoption of the same criteria for lowering environmental impact factors will be rewarding for the purposes of evaluation for the allocation of Ministerial funding, which in turn will be functional to implement the Green conversion.
Jazz Takes The Green, in its being a network of ideas and practices, is thus not just a proclamation of noble intentions, but a true operational pathway that is mentored by Green Fest and Ecosystems Foundation experts.
