5th Bodrum Jazz Festival
Bodrum Jazz Festival is 5 years old. In my opinion, the first 5 years are of great importance for the healthy growth and sustainability of a festival. We were only just able to keep our festival alive, which has spent the last two years during the Covid-19 pandemic process, and our dreams about its growth are suspended for now. Nevertheless, we were able to maintain international support, albeit to a small extent, and we received the promise from the Mayor of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality to support the festival with concerts in other cities of Muğla in the coming years. Despite everything, we announced the festival program as a result of the continued support and dedication of our team.
Bodrum Jazz Festival was designed to contribute to Bodrum's process of becoming an international brand. Every important coastal city adorned with culture should have a Jazz Festival, festivals that combine the universality of music with local culture are important for the city.
As the curator of the festival, I consider it among my duties to determine the theme, content, artists and visual designs of the festival and present them to the audience in harmony. In this process, we have always been fed by Bodrum, we were inspired by Bodrum's blue, bougainvillea and people. Finally, I followed the call of our President Ahmet Aras and became a Bodrum native.
Artists from 2 countries were able to participate in the festival, which we prepared with the theme of Mediterranean Brotherhood, but I wish all of us to be healthy next year and to be able to host many artists and groups that we could not include in the coming years.
Thank you.
It is very important to get the support of both public and private institutions for the festival to be sustainable. Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism Honorable Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and General Directorate of Copyrights, Muğla Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Professor Doctor Osman Gurun, Bodrum Mayor Ahmet Aras, Deputy Mayor Hüseyin Tutkun, and the whole Municipality team with the friendly support we succeeded and overcame the challenges together. Thank you.
We would like to thank the Redwood Entertainment executives for the concerts we held together with the Italian Embassy and our sister Festival Rhodes Jazz Festival, who supported us to host an important jazz group at our festival in line with our "Mediterranean Brotherhood" theme. In the coming years, we will try to ensure the participation of other countries.
As a member of the Europe Jazz Network, our festival cooperates with European jazz institutions. I wish our communication to increase gradually.
A special thank you to the academicians and students of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Graphics Department, especially our Head of Department, Erol Turgut, who designed the visuals of our festivals every year.
We would like to thank BODER and Very Chic Hotel for their accommodation support for the festival. We welcome Anhaven and Radisson Collection Hotel, which joined us this year, and hope that our cooperation will continue to increase. Our artists will remember Bodrum better this year thanks to them.
We would like to thank Renault MAIS, which supports the festival every year, for believing in the festival with us. This year, our work has become much easier with the vehicle of our festival.
Dibeklihan Culture and Art Village, which hosts concerts; dear Uluç Tezer and his team, Erkan Oğur who hosted the Erkan Oğur Music School and Jazz Workshops, organizations that provided various support to the festival such as TAV Passport, BODFAD, The Nature Love, Idecon, Körfez Restaurant, Prep_Yalıkavak, Mine Art Gallery, Özlen Tasarım, and a big thank you to the hero who provided so much silent support.
It is very valuable for the media to make what we do visible. With the support of Press Sponsors T24, KentTV, Radyo ODTÜ, Cazkolik, Jazz Magazine, MAG Media, Life in Bodrum, and Media members who provide all news support, the festival can take place again this year.
We would like to thank the My Organization team for their support in the operation.
I would like to thank everyone who worked in the Jazz Society and the Festival team, the volunteers, and professionals, all of them paid a great effort. As the Jazz Society Board of Directors, we would like to thank our Festival Director Pınar Gürer, Assistant Director Mert Orhun, Selma Güçlü Çetin, and Rana Celebcioğlu. We would like to thank the IDECON team, Atila Başaran, Selin Demiral, Hakan Demirbilek, Öykü Göğer, Funda Çavdar Ünlücayaklı, Sinan Dalkılıç, Utku Dönmez, Can Koçak, Eren Gül, Emir Bingöl and our business partners in Bodrum for their support in the processes of the festival.
Thanks again to Devrim Erol, who named the Bodrum Jazz Festival. Fortunately, he came to me with this idea 5 years ago, it was a very nice festival in Bodrum.
We hope to host the Naval Forces Command Sea Stars Orchestra, which we are very sorry for not being able to attend our festival for two years due to Covid-19, and many of our artists who could not take part this year, in better conditions.
Stay healthy and with music,
Özlem Oktar Varoglu
Bodrum, 31 August 2021