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Paul Bergen / AFP - Getty Images
Esperanza Spalding performs on the first day of the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam on July 8, 2011. The festival, which runs until July 10, features performances by some 1300 musicians on some 13 stages.
Paul Bergen / AFP - Getty Images
Paul Simon performs on Friday.
The first North Sea Jazz Festival took place in 1976 in the Nederlands Congresgebouw in The Hague. It started with six venues, 300 artists and about 9,000 visitors. Legends of jazz like Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie performed that first year.
The festival moved to its current, bigger location in Rotterdam in 2006. More than 1,000 musicians are expected to play on 13 different stages this year, and more than 65,000 concert goers are expected to attend.
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Robert, a very cool bit-o-music history. But having been to festivals nearly as big, with so many stages and acts, it can become difficult to choose which act you really want to see, when the two, or three you most wanted to see go onstage at the same time. Compromise and some fan shortened sets usually win our over missing out on any of them.