The organization behind the Otava Happy Jazz-event is the Lions Club Otava who annually strives huge efforts to make this happening possible. This happening takes annually place in the first weekend of August starting on Saturday in
the afternoon as an open air concert in the park of Otava Institute in the spirit of picnic. Next time it is 6.7.2024
According to the main principle of Otava Happy Jazz- happening, we have during these many many
years donated all income of the concerts exclusively to charity. Beneficiaries are the youth, the old, the handicapped, the war veterans and the work that is being done against the drugs. The second important principle of our concerts is the musical education. During these years
our concerts have made the excellent and almost vanished old swinging jazz familiar among
numerous children and young people. Year after year we have been able to offer high-quality concerts: Swing, rhytms of New
Orleans, Dixieland, Rhytm & blues and Afro-latin music. The artists come from Sweden,
Estonia, Russia, Poland, Holland and far from USA, Brazil, Australia, not to forget the best
musicians of Finland. The open air -concerts also have a very strong social aspect. It is an annual meeting point of
friends, old buddies and strangers at the end of the Finnish holiday season. It means a relaxed
picnic- feeling on green grass together with the audience up to 3000 people from Finland and
other countries around the world joining together to enjoy excellent music. The weather always has supported us with sunshine and warmth. Without boasting we can
say that during the last years these first weekend-days of August have been the best days of summer.
