Italian Jazz for the Earthquake-Stricken Lands

Jazz as a tool for community rebuilding

Italian Jazz for the Earthquake-Stricken Lands is a major solidarity-driven festival that transforms the historic center of L'Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, into an expansive open-air stage during the first week of September. Launched in 2015 as Italian Jazz for L'Aquila, the event expanded in 2017 to embrace all the areas of the central Apennines scarred by earthquakes, gathering the entire national jazz community each year in a collective act of solidarity and rebirth.

An expansive stage in the historic center

For two days, the squares, churches, palaces, and courtyards of the Abruzzese capital host dozens of free concerts running from morning until late at night. Iconic locations such as the San Bernardino Staircase, the 16th-century Castle with its bastions and surrounding parks, MAXXI L'Aquila at Palazzo Ardinghelli, the Alfredo Casella Conservatory, and the MUNDA museum become unique listening venues, allowing the audience to move freely between sets. Bands, choirs, ensembles, and orchestras from all over Italy create a sonic mosaic that weaves together tradition, research, and experimentation.

Music, memory, and solidarity

The festival is more than just a musical event: it is a civic and cultural project that supports the social reconstruction of areas hit by the seismic events. Each edition is preceded by a Solidarity Walk, a trekking and concert route that touches villages in the Apennines still marked by the 2009 and 2016 earthquakes, such as Camerino, Castelluccio di Norcia, and Amatrice, bringing music to communities that are laboriously rebuilding.

A collective effort

The event is organized by the Associazione Jazz all'Aquila E.T.S. with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of L'Aquila, and the Abruzzo Region, in collaboration with SIAE and NUOVO IMAIE. Having grown year after year, the festival is now one of the most anticipated appointments on the Italian jazz scene and a powerful symbol of identity for the entire city of L'Aquila, which in 2026 also serves as the Italian Capital of Culture.