City festivals and urban development: does place matter?

Abstract

After 30 years in the Dutch city of The Hague, the North Sea Jazz Festival (NSJF) has left its birthplace, prompted by the partial demolition of its venue. Although the current organizer of this premier international jazz festival, Mojo Concerts, would have preferred to relocate it within the city, the local government was unable to retain it. The move to Rotterdam in 2006 illustrates the process whereby cities actively compete for festivals. This paper examines the place dependency of a jazz festival by juxtaposing the perspectives of key actors: the local government of the two host cities, The Hague and Rotterdam; the festival organizer Mojo Concerts; and the visitors to the NSJF. The relocation is explained in light of the motives of the stakeholders and the perception of the audience, as gleaned from in-depth interviews and a large-scale survey held before and after the move. The interviews indicate that local governments regard festivals as important urban showcases, although the survey reveals that the direct links between the festival and host city are weak. The conclusions connect insights from the case study to the scant literature on the extent to which place really matters for a festival and vice versa.