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Previous participant: Ece Devrim Küreksiz
From: Bozcaada Jazz Festival (Turkey)
To: XJAZZ Berlin (Germany)
Dates: 5 - 11 May 2024
I participated in the EJN Exchange Program as a part of the Bozcaada Jazz Festival and I chose XJAZZ Berlin as the festival to do my exchange. They are a music festival but they decided to expand their program with side events and they had an enriched curation. They communicated their need for a side events coordinator and I agreed to take that role.
The festival lasted 7 days, from Monday to Sunday, but the side events began on the third day of the festival so I had time to adjust to the team and the program. The team was so proactive and they welcomed me with open arms. The side events had socio-political topics such as Ukrainian immigration, queer culture, music based topics and networking events. As I learned my way around the many venues of the festival, I had the opportunity to also widen my knowledge of Berlin and especially Kreuzberg.
I loved the venue selection and found them very innovative. The side events program was rich in quality and also in quantity. As I tried to balance the work load of the back-to-back side events I really improved my time and task management skills.
For their first year of including side events, I think the XJAZZ Team did a really good job but also there were some mistakes as well. I was given the responsibility but not the authority so when there was a need to make a difficult decision, I was alone and had to make a call; which in return upset some people but the team was very responsive and they listened to the entire situation. I gave them important feedback and they received it very openly.
The last 3 days of the festival was very informative. I’ve seen some positive operational methods and took note of them to pass on to my home festival, such as creating a team to provide pads/tampons, ear plugs, to help them if there is a participant that bothers them, etc. Also, I had the chance to discover new music, check-out upcoming local bands and wrote them down to hopefully include in our own festival one day. In conclusion, it was a very warm, productive, educational experience.
To: XJAZZ Berlin (Germany)
Dates: 5 - 11 May 2024
I participated in the EJN Exchange Program as a part of the Bozcaada Jazz Festival and I chose XJAZZ Berlin as the festival to do my exchange. They are a music festival but they decided to expand their program with side events and they had an enriched curation. They communicated their need for a side events coordinator and I agreed to take that role.
The festival lasted 7 days, from Monday to Sunday, but the side events began on the third day of the festival so I had time to adjust to the team and the program. The team was so proactive and they welcomed me with open arms. The side events had socio-political topics such as Ukrainian immigration, queer culture, music based topics and networking events. As I learned my way around the many venues of the festival, I had the opportunity to also widen my knowledge of Berlin and especially Kreuzberg.
I loved the venue selection and found them very innovative. The side events program was rich in quality and also in quantity. As I tried to balance the work load of the back-to-back side events I really improved my time and task management skills.
For their first year of including side events, I think the XJAZZ Team did a really good job but also there were some mistakes as well. I was given the responsibility but not the authority so when there was a need to make a difficult decision, I was alone and had to make a call; which in return upset some people but the team was very responsive and they listened to the entire situation. I gave them important feedback and they received it very openly.
The last 3 days of the festival was very informative. I’ve seen some positive operational methods and took note of them to pass on to my home festival, such as creating a team to provide pads/tampons, ear plugs, to help them if there is a participant that bothers them, etc. Also, I had the chance to discover new music, check-out upcoming local bands and wrote them down to hopefully include in our own festival one day. In conclusion, it was a very warm, productive, educational experience.
