For several years, it has been a dream to carry out a jazz festival in Herning. The idea originated from the jazz concerts that have been taking place at Fermaten since 2002 in collaboration between the association Moor Jazz and Fermaten. For a number of years, the ambitions connected to the jazz concerts have grown and has meant that Fermaten has presented international jazz names from the top shelf since 2012. Maceo Parker, Snarky Puppy, Mezzoforte, Ed Motta, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox and Cory Henry are among the artists who have visited and placed Fermaten on the map with international jazz.

As a result, the next step was to make an annual international jazz festival in Herning, which would continue to highlight Herning as a place to travel to for great jazz concert experiences. The ambition has been to move into the same class as the jazz festivals Tampere Jazz Happening in Finland, Umeå Jazz Festival in Sweden and London Jazz Festival, which are international and recognized jazz festivals in cities.

In collaboration between Moor Jazz, Fermaten and Swinging Europe, Herning’s first very own jazz festival was established and took place in 2019 – MOORJAZZ Festival saw the light of day, jazzy tunes in tow.

Festivals in 2020 were an endangered species and a creature one had to look long for to find. But in Herning, the organisers of MOORJAZZ Festival managed to carry out the festival, which proved to be a much-needed, necessary and uplifting experience to a very special degree.

MOORJAZZ Festival was carried out under different circumstances than usual in 2020. In addition to the guests, people were encouraged to keep their distance instead of seeking closeness, the concerts, which usually take place at HHHerning, were spread out over several venues and days. MOORJAZZ Festival thus presented a melting pot of different jazz genres performed at a selection of Herning’s most beautiful and atmospheric locations.

The young trio, Kosmos, lined up with a familiar face from last year’s litter of talents from MOORJAZZ Festival, drummer Gustav Hagelskjær, who has sincestarted at the conservatory in Aarhus. The trio performing the opening concert at Herning Library on Thursday 29th October played beautiful, melodic and Nordic-inspired jazz.  Friday night, three bands stood in front of a younger and enthusiastic audience on Fermaten’s large stage for the October edition of the concert concept Frekvens. The band Caleido played their first concert in Jutland and left with happy smiles, heading home to Zealand after a warm reception. Kosmos repeated their success from the opening concert and upped the intensity, and the evening ended with the experienced band, Girls In Airports, giving it their all.

During Sunday 1st of November and Thursday 5th of November, audiences were invited to listen to jazz in beautiful and very special surroundings. On Sunday, one of the greatest talents from the Danish music scene, Ginne Marker, delivered a solo concert with nerve, presence and soul on HEART. On Thursday, the trio Hvalfugl got air under their wings in Carl Henning Pedersen and Else Alfelt’s Museum’s beautiful prism hall. Here, the melodic and Nordic-sounding jazz went directly into the audience’s hearts. On Friday the 6th November, students from the music classes at Herning High School had a party in the middle of the day, when the afro jazz band The KutiMangoes showed up. The atmosphere, the students’ great enthusiasm and the long subsequent applause with accompanying trampling on the floor would indicate that the students more than ever needed the music to be incorporated into their everyday lives.

The festival continued on Friday 6th November at Fermaten, where one of the biggest Danish jazz names in recent years invited the audience inside for an atmospheric evening. With their unique mix of jazz and reggae, the duo Bremer/McCoy created a cohesion between bass, piano and beautiful melodies. On Saturday afternoon, Billie Holidays’ song were served in the presence of Kira Skov, who was backed by a swinging jazz band. It was thus a touching afternoon at Fermaten. Saturday night, audience and band melted together in shared excitement over the Hammmond jazz when Ibrahim Electric caused the seated party to explode. Applause and cool solos from the musicians took turns, and everything went up in a higher unit.

On a sunny afternoon of Sunday, November 8th, MOORJAZZ Festival 2020 closed with a musical meeting between a girls’ choir and a jazzy, exploratory duo that found new paths in music. Gustaf Ljunggren and Emil de Waal combined their efforts with MidtVest Girls’ Choir in Gullestrup Church, where MOORJAZZ Festival waved a solemn goodbye to the festival’s guests. The festival continues in 2021, as the organisers are already planning the sequel to this year’s success. The festival ended on 2nd December at Fermaten with a concert after a jazz camp, where girls aged 10-15 had been taught jazz and improvisation.

MOORJAZZ Festival 2020 became a jazzy snapshot of a strange time where culture in particular has been tried, and if you ask the audience, organisers and artists, the 2020 version of the festival was more than needed.

The first international jazz festival took place on the 9th November 2019. The venue for the festival in 2019 was the now protected Herning Folk High School – HHHerning. The buildings are unique with beautiful artistic spaces and for stages (The Hexagon and the Lecture Hall), which together create a unique setting for an indoor jazz festival, where there was both room for the audience and artists. The concerts were supplemented with occasional events in the form of masterclasses, workshops, artist talks, DJ, record sales, hosts from P8 Jazz etc. and other rewarding features. The smaller rooms at HHHerning were, for example, used to create unique intimate concerts, such as PLAY!GROUND LIVE in the fireplace room, penthouse solo concerts in the artist apartment on the 14th floor, to mention a few initiatives.