Bozcaada Jazz Festival returns in September

ÇANAKKALE

The ninth edition of the Bozcaada Jazz Festival will take place between Sept. 5–7, offering audiences a rich blend of music, dialogue and collective exploration across three venues on the Aegean island.

Featuring international acts such as Kokoroko, Electro Deluxe, and Mohini Dey, alongside Turkish favorites like the Kerem Görsev Quintet, the festival aims to deliver a layered cultural experience through its performances, open-air events and thematic programming.

Organized by 3dots and allaturca, this year’s edition is shaped around the theme “Embodiment,” broadening its scope beyond music to include panels, workshops, and collective production spaces as part of the festival’s side program KEŞİF (Discovery). These events will explore the intersections of body, culture, design and local issues.

This year’s festival will feature a unique maritime component: An ancient-style ship will travel from Urla to Bozcaada, making stops in Foça, Ayvalık and Assos before arriving at the island for a special musical performance. After the festival, the ship will be permanently displayed at the Troy Museum.

“This project is meant to recreate a journey from Homeric times,” said Festival co-founder Murat Sezgi.

Sezgi also highlighted that Bozcaada Jazz was the first festival in Türkiye to make an open call for programming proposals and to publish an impact report — a second edition of which is expected this year.

Festival co-founder Doğukan Çokşeker noted that a new venue has been added this year: Salhane, an open space that will host both local and international musicians. “We created an open stage to give early and mid-career performers of all ages an opportunity to play,” he said.

In addition to Salhane, the Ayazma Monastery will once again host the festival’s main acts with evening concerts on Friday and Saturday. A third venue, Habbele Beach, will bring together sun, sea and sound through a daytime program of dance-friendly electronic music performed by high-profile DJs from Türkiye and abroad.

“With these additions, the festival is now an all-day, full-island experience,” said Çokşeker. “Between our concerts and the KEŞİF activities, we’ll have about 200 events packed into three days.”

In a genre-crossing collaboration created exclusively for the festival, rapper M Lisa and trumpet player Tolga Bilgin will perform together. Çokşeker said the pair’s project will blend jazz and funk with electronic sounds.

Melodi Şıhmantepe, who curates the KEŞİF program, said this year’s lineup includes a broad range of formats and topics.

“We’re bringing together talks, workshops and physical experiences that explore technology, design, entrepreneurship and local concerns — all under the lens of embodiment,” she said. “One of our key events will be a workshop on establishing a viticulture fund for the island.”

Co-founder Çağıl Özdemir added that the goal is to support Bozcaada’s 4,000-year-old winemaking tradition through innovative financing and collaborative action.

About the festival

Bozcaada Jazz Festival merges different interpretations of jazz with interdisciplinary experimentation in one of Türkiye’s most picturesque settings.

This year’s program will be held at three main venues: The historic Ayazma Monastery, the beachside Habbele Beach and the open-air space Salhane.

The opening concert on Sept. 5 will feature London-based ensemble Kokoroko, known for blending Afrobeat and jazz. Led by trumpet player Sheila Maurice-Grey, the group is a vibrant presence in the U.K. jazz scene with a strong lineup of women musicians.

That same night, the Kerem Görsev Quintet will take the stage, bringing together Görsev on piano with Volkan Hürsever (bass), Ferit Odman (drums), Barış Doğukan Yazıcı (trumpet) and Engin Recepoğulları (saxophone).

On Sept. 6, American bassist and vocalist Mohini Dey will perform, followed by Electro Deluxe, a French group known for fusing jazz, funk and electronic textures.

Throughout the festival, Ayazma will also host nightly DJ performances, while Habbele Beach will provide an immersive experience of rhythm and electronic sound from early morning until sunset.