A concert hall with paddle steamers and saloon ships instead of rows of seats: Riverboat-Shuffle spreads the jazz across an entire parade. Decked out in festive colours, the ships of the Sächsische Dampfschiffahrt set off together from Terrassenufer. In front of the Dresden Old Town, a journey begins in which music, historic ships and the landscape of the Elbe Valley all belong together. 19 bands from Germany, the Czech Republic, France and the Netherlands are on board, spread across the ships. Here, traditional jazz appears in a variety of line-ups and styles, from brass band to classic Dixieland formation. So the music is not merely along for the ride. It is the very reason for this parade on the water.

The fleet brings its own history with it. Since 1836, Sächsische Dampfschiffahrt has been travelling on the Elbe. Its nine paddle steamers date from 1879 to 1929 and are protected heritage monuments. Upstream, the trip heads toward Pillnitz, passing the Elbschlösser and the Blauen Wunder. So the moving concert backdrop is not only the ship itself, but also the riverbank drifting past it.

Jazz on a river steamer has clear musical precedents. Around 1920, Fate Marable's band played on the Mississippi excursion boats, with a young Louis Armstrong among its members. And the name of this evening is no accident: "Riverboat Shuffle" is the title of a piece by Hoagy Carmichael, which Bix Beiderbecke recorded with the Wolverines in 1924. The Dresden voyage takes up this connection between river, ship and music in its own way.

Riverboat-Shuffle has been part of the festival since 1995, the year of its 25th anniversary. After returning to Terrassenufer, the grand fireworks display by main sponsor Feldschlößchen brings the evening to a close. Warm, windproof clothing is recommended for the open decks: jazz may be lively, but the Elbe air does not automatically stay warm.

No festival finale would be complete without the Dixieland-Parade – and this image stays with you: up to two dozen floats, hundreds of participants, tens of thousands of spectators lining the parade route from the start at the former Carola-Brücke along the Terrassenufer through the historic city centre.

The Dixieland-Parade is Traditional Jazz in its most vibrant, most authentic form, because jazz was literally born in the street; the marching-band heritage emerged in the funeral processions and celebratory parades of early-20th-century New Orleans. Anyone standing along the route today and hearing the sound of a brass band approaching experiences a direct echo of that history. And anyone fortunate enough to look from the Brühlsche Terrasse down onto the Terrassenufer sees the panorama of this parade set against the backdrop of the Dresden Old Town.

The parade belongs to the city and everyone in it.