One concert evening, three spaces – and the freedom to follow your own musical curiosity. At Hot Jazz in der Festung, Bärenzwinger, Kasematten and Kanonenhof are all used at the same time. The spaces are next to one another. Staying with one of them or moving between them is equally part of the concept here.

Four bands show how differently traditional jazz can take shape. The Allotria Jazz Band from München brings Dixieland and swing. Their name recalls the Munich jazz club where they were a house band for many years. From Tilburg comes the Lamarotte Jazzband, a formation whose history began on the street: in 1974 it was founded as the Netherlands' first Dixieland street orchestra. It has been a festival guest for many years. Also from the Netherlands, The OhnO! Jazzband joins the line-up. Since 2001 it has combined New Orleans jazz, Dixieland and blues with the music of street parades. The Prague Dixieland Society was founded in 2017 in Prague and is devoted to the 1920s and 1930s in the New Orleans style. Swing, blues and parade tradition therefore do not stand side by side as separate worlds, but as different approaches to one musical family.

The fortress, for its part, has more than one story to tell. The casemates are among the few surviving parts of Dresden’s 16th-century city fortifications. Soldiers were once housed here, and weapons and gunpowder were stored here. A very different use began in the Bärenzwinger with volunteer work: architecture students at TU Dresden cleared the vaults of rubble in the mid-1960s and developed them further. The student club opened in June 1968.

The Kanonenhof beneath the Brühlschen Garten has been one of the festival venues since 2023. For this evening, the adjoining rooms become three musical meeting places. The old walls remain, and the passages between them are open. Which band holds your attention longer, and when curiosity leads you on to the next room, is entirely up to you.