The 13th Jazz in the Old Town festival is kicking off June 30. The event is Poland's largest jazz festival in terms of audience. Every year, it attracts 50,000 fans. On average, each concert draws an audience of 3,000-4,000. The festival is also one of the longest in Europe in terms of duration. This year, it will last until Aug. 25. On Saturdays, admission to all festival concerts is free. As usual, the festival will feature many international stars with a mixture of styles and projects by both European and American musicians. This year, mainstream, modern and world jazz will dominate, both instrumental and vocal.

Every year, the festival showcases a variety of jazz styles and trends. Over the years, the event has hosted many European and American stars. In 1994-2004, top musicians included Dino Saluzzi & the Tomasz Stańko Quartet, the Michał Urbaniak Group, the Scott Hamilton Group, Sexteto Habanita, United Vibrations, the Loud Jazz Band, Virtual Jazz Reality, Old Timers, the Vistula River Brass Band and the International Summer Jazz Academy. This year's highlights include concerts by experimental New York musician David Murray and his quartet on June 30; the Caroline Henderson Quintet from Sweden on July 7; jazz-rock pianist Jasper van't Hof from the Netherlands with his new project Hotlips on July 21; and Nuevo Tango Ensamble from Italy with the Night for Astor Piazzolla project on July 28. The Tomasz Stańko Band will perform Aug. 4.

The event will be held under the auspices of Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and Culture Minister Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski. The media patrons are TVP2, TVP3, Jazz Radio, Radio Tok Fm, Gazeta Wyborcza, The Warsaw Voice, Warsaw Point, WiK, Wprost, Jazz Forum and Wirtualna Polska.