Canal Street (Arendal, Norway)

Canal Street
Canal Street
Genre	Blues, jazz, rock and world music
Website	http://www.canalstreet.no

Canal Street (Arendal Jazz & Blues Festival) is a yearly jazz and blues festival in Arendal, first presented in 1996.

The festival is known for its use of unusual venues where interesting surroundings go hand in hand with musical experiences. Jazz at the Lighthouse at lille Torungen fyr, bathing blues & swimming jazz in Merdø Uthavn, bohemian jazz at Kolbjørnsvik and ”Føling på fyllinga” at the local waste dump, Heftingsdalen, are some of the examples.

Canal Street is one of few Norwegian festivals that feature both jazz and blues as main genres. This gives a great opportunity to show two genres that historically are closely connected, and thereby you can enjoy all the excitement from featuring the two genres. And, we also include rock and world music.

Festival program features

Canal Street's strategy is to offer the best of the Norwegian and international jazz and blues scene as well as related world music and rock. Both the new and unknown and the traditional expressions can be found.

The name

Once upon a time Arendal was a town of canals. However, what was once seen as "progress" required that these canals be filled up, and so they disappeared. One of the remains from the canal era is Canal Place, now one of the main venues of the festival.

Environmental profile

Canal Street was certified as a "Green venue" in 2006 as one of the first festivals in Norway. Canal Street has joined the UN's Carbon Neutral Network and is supporting this year's Earth Hour 2009.