In 1972, Moers Festival first started under the name ‘International New Jazz Festival Moers’. Ever since it has been held over Whitsun period each spring. In over 40 years, it has become one of the leading festivals of jazz and contemporary improvised music in Europe. Now as ever, the moers festival stands for the willingness to take risks and the courage to explore new territory, thus making it a reliable sources of non-mainstream musical discoveries. In 2014 the festival could finally turn its back on provisional venues and move into its very own festival hall. In 2015, moers festival received the EJN Award for Adventurous Programming from the Europe Jazz Network.

The Moers Festival is organized by the Moers Kultur GmbH, a non-profit organisation, with the support of the City of Moers, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as many additional partners and sponsors.

Mapping the ambitious European scene and its current musical developments is one of the Festival’s main goals. European artists present at least 60% of the content in the main programme. We encourage German and European artists – for example by letting them create a new project for the Festival, or offering a residency to selected artists. At Moers our aim is to present new constellations, as well as somewhat daring programmes and collaborations. We invite newcomers/young musicians and also well experienced European artists. Apart from working on the musical programme itself, we also want to promote communication and exchange between musicians, European colleagues, journalists and other experts.