Bankrupt North Sea Jazz Club closed

Amsterdam’s North Sea Jazz Club venue has closed after its operator, Kop Oost, filed for bankruptcy.

The 450-cap. venue, which offered both live music and dining, opened in 2012 in the new Westergasfabriek development. Its naming agreement with North Sea Jazz Festival – promoted by local Live Nation operation Mojo Concerts – expires in May, and a statement from Kop Oost says a change of name was already underway.

However, venue owner Beheer- en Exploitatiemaatschappij Westergasfabriek refused to sanction the name change, deeming it a breach of contract, and threatened to terminate Kop Oost’s lease.

This, says the company, led to investors withdrawing from North Sea Jazz Club – after which bankruptcy was “inevitable”.

“I find it very regrettable the club has closed, but there has been no rent paid for four months”

Sixty venue staff are to lose their jobs as a result of the closure.

Westergasfabriek director Mark de Kruijk, however, disputes Kop Oost’s version of events, saying the venue was months behind on its rent even before the end of the agreement with Mojo.

“I am surprised about the story [Kop Oost] is putting forward,” he tells he tells local daily Het Parool. “The Westergasfabriek does prefer to carry on with the name North Sea Jazz Club – but where our dispute primarily lies is in the venue’s huge arrears. I find it very regrettable that the club has closed, but there has been no rent paid for four months.”

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