J-Night are well known as being the producers of Hull Jazz Festival for over 20 years but we’re becoming increasingly known as the people who provide the iconic Yellow Bus stage at Freedom Festival every September.
Public Service Broadcasting, headlining the Yellow Bus Stage on Saturday 6th September at Freedom Festival 2015
We’re very excited to announce that Public Service Broadcasting will be headlining the Yellow Bus stage at this year’s Freedom Festival, bringing their spellbinding live AV transmission to Hull on Saturday 5th September.
And in a brand new adventure, we’re also delighted to be presenting two very special shows in the beautiful Holy Trinity Church as part of Freedom Festival 2015 with the award-winning Tubular Bells for Two, direct from the Edinburgh Festival.
Tubular Bells for Two, appearing at Holy Trinity Church this September as part of Freedom Festival
Until Freedom came along, Hull Jazz Festival provided one of the few opportunities to see great Jazz and World artists in Hull in large-scale, free, outdoors settings through initiatives such as Jazz in the Boatshed, Jazz in Queens Gardens and Red Hot Fiesta. Following the impact of the 2007 abolition of slavery and Wilberforce commemorations in Hull, when Hull Jazz Festival promoted the Sankofa Sunsplash, curated by Audrey Okyere-Fosu in Queens Gardens, J-Night has worked to support Freedom with a number of initiatives.
2009 and 2010 Round the World Clipper race and Freedom Festivals saw Ruby Turner, Asere and Salsarosa from Cuba and many others turning the Marina Boatshed into a unique venue for thousands of visitors.
Empirical
2012 saw the birth of Hull Jazz Festival’s iconic Yellow Bus stage, which immediately caught the public’s imagination, situated in the heart of Freedom Quarter. Providing a unique blend of Jazz-influenced, high energy non-stop performances, the Yellow Bus Stage aims to bring the best international, regional and local artists to celebrate Freedom in Hull. Our artists celebrate the spirit of Freedom and the audiences respond to their passion. The styles range from the hip hop artist Akala to the coolest of bebop jazz sounds of Empirical – both MOBO award winners – from the Jamaican sounds of Last Train to Skaville to the Cuban classical violin of Omar Puente to the street sounds of New York Brass Band! We celebrate the freedom not to only promote jazz!
Roland Gift, Freedom Festival 2014
2014 saw the Yellow Bus moved to a new position by the Pier and expand its programme with Hull’s Roland Gift (making a rare solo performance), Queen of Gospel and Soul Ruby Turner and New York’s incredible acapella sensation Naturally 7 headlining a 3 day Festival of extraordinary sounds and experiences.
J-Night is indebted to the vision of the Freedom board and team and artistic directors Walk the Plank for the opportunity to add our special brand of music to the wonderful array of experiences that are on offer to the people of Hull.
Yellow Bus crowd, Freedom Festival 2014
We are extremely grateful to the support of Arts Council, England, Hull City Council, Jazz North and the PRS Foundation for enabling us to keep these wonderful experiences coming to the City – and we will be working hard, alongside Freedom to ensure that we bring more amazing surprises to the UK City of Culture 2017, when we’lll be celebrating our 25th anniversary!