Seven bands come on board, and the concert venue casts off. The Riverboat-Sonderfahrt combines traditional jazz with a cruise on the Elbe. Festively flag-draped paddle steamers and saloon ships of Sächsische Dampfschiffahrt carry the music out onto the water. From Terrassenufer in front of the Dresden Old Town, the route heads upstream toward Pillnitz.

The bands come from Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands and are distributed across the ships. They turn the trip on the Elbe into a musical format in which the scenery is far more than a mere side note. Passing the Elbschlösser and the Blaues Wunder, the route leads through the Elbe Valley. The ships carry two things at once: jazz on board and their own history. Sächsische Dampfschiffahrt has been operating on the Elbe since 1836. Its nine paddle steamers date from 1879 to 1929 and are listed monuments. On ships like these, the combination of jazz and river cruising gains a special historical setting. The music of the early jazz years encounters vessels whose construction dates back well into the 19th century.

That the two go together has precedents on another river. Around 1920, shipping companies on the Mississippi hired bands for their excursion steamers. Fate Marable also featured the young Louis Armstrong at the time. There, jazz was part of a journey, not just a programme in a hall. The Dresden Riverboat idea builds on this connection: the festival developed its flagship format in 1995 for its 25th anniversary.

The special trip gives this idea its own place in the programme, with seven bands and the Elbe Valley as a moving concert backdrop. Back at Terrassenufer, the journey ends in front of the Old Town. Warm, windproof clothing is recommended for time on the open decks. The views may be sweeping, and your jacket should stay within easy reach.

No festival finale would be complete without the Dixieland-Parade – and this is an image that stays with you: up to two dozen floats and ensembles, hundreds of participants, tens of thousands of spectators lining the parade route from the starting point at the former Carola-Brücke along 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 from the funeral processions and celebratory parades of early 20th-century New Orleans. Anyone standing along the route today and hearing the sound of a Brassband coming toward them experiences a direct echo of that history. And anyone lucky enough to look from Brühlschen Terrasse down onto Terrassenufer sees the panorama of this parade set against the backdrop of the Dresden Old Town.

The parade belongs to the city and to everyone in it.