Jazz Festivals Around the World

My earliest memories have a jazz soundtrack. It was the music my father listened to, that permeated our home. As a rebellious teenager, I rejected it as “old people’s music,” favoring the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. (No one told me about their jazz influences until much later.) During my college years, however, I experienced a transformation of musical taste.  I happened to have a boyfriend who loved jazz, and he was amazed at my wide range of jazz knowledge. Likely he would have been far more impressed with my father’s jazz collection, if he had only known.

Happily, I was finally able to embrace the music my father so ardently wanted to share, and I can honestly say that the two jazz concerts I attended with my dad before he died are some of my fondest memories together.

Since then, I have come to believe that live jazz performances are the best way to experience this music. Why? Because jazz is never the same; the improvisation musicians bring to the stage when playing is what makes each song and live performance so special. What I have also come to learn is that there are many fans of jazz around the world, as these festivals indicate.

Below are just a sampling of some of the finest jazz festivals in the world.


Festival International de Jazz de Montreal
10-11 days in late June and early July
Every summer, Montreal embraces its international sensibilities and fills its streets with festival goers of every type. By far its most important event, however, is the Montreal International Jazz Festival, which includes more than 3,000 musicians from 30 countries around the globe. From Tony Bennett to Al Jarreau, from Pat Metheny to Nora Jones, and beyond, this jazz festival attracts all of the jazz greats and spans the range of music from Latin Jazz to Electronica, from Reggae to Bebop.

With more than 2 million attendees, this is the largest jazz festival in the world, and it continues to grow. Performances take over the downtown area, centered around Place des Arts. Using 10 outdoor stages and 10 concert halls for hundreds of indoor and outdoor performances, Montreal gives over its streets to the festival, and includes a musical park for kids. This festival has something for everyone!


Havana International Jazz Festival
7 days, mid-February
Since the early 1980s, this jazz festival has been drawing not only on its own musical roots (heavily tinged with African influences) but on the importation of music from beyond its borders. With approximately 30,000 attendees this festival is a wild intermingling of musical groups and sounds, with as much of the excitement stemming from impromptu sessions that occur in after-hours venues as what appears on the official program. It may appear disorganized and sprawling, but it has a depth and closeness to the music that cannot be rivaled. Americans can attend via organized tours, often through Canadian companies. Professional musicians and those associated with the music business are also able to obtain legal visas with no problem.


North Sea Jazz Festival
3 days, 2nd full weekend in July
Condensed into a three-day weekend, this Dutch festival held at The Hague has been going for more than 25 years and is the largest gathering of jazz musicians in Europe. When the festival began, there were 6 venues, 300 artists, and about 9,000 attendees. Yet it also had some of the most famous names in jazz performing, including Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, and Stan Getz. Today, the festival has 15 venues, 1,300 artists, and about 70,000 attendees. The entertainers remain top notch. Just about any performer you can think of in the jazz genre has played here, from Nat Adderly to Herbie Hancock to Alicia Keys, and more.

The festival is particularly known for introducing new artists to the European jazz audience, and with the festival’s popularity, two new events, “Heats the Hague” and “Midsummer Jazz Gala” have been added on the eve of the festival’s opening.


Montreux Jazz Festival
16 days, including first 3 full weekends in July
Since 1967, this jazz festival has always been ahead of the curve, featuring both new and established jazz talent. Set on the shores of beautiful Lake Geneva, Switzerland, the Montreux Festival is the largest jazz festival in Switzerland and well known throughout the world. Today it attracts more than 200,000 people over a slightly longer than two week period, and every name in the jazz and rock business has performed here, from jazz greats like Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald to rock legends like Sting and Black Eyed Peas. Whether it’s the gathering of artists or the beautiful location, the glory of Montreux continues on.


Cork Jazz Festival
4 days, late October
As the second largest city in Ireland, Cork is number one when it comes to hosting the country’s largest jazz festival. With its importance as a brewing center, it’s little surprise that Guinness (“the wine of Ireland” according to James Joyce, its beloved son) sponsors this lively festival. With more than 1,000 musicians and 50,000 attendees, this festival has gained so much in popularity that nearby Kinsale (18 miles south of Cork) has recently taken up the cause and holds its own (albeit much smaller) four-day Gourmet and Jazz Festival.


Chicago Jazz Festival
3 days, Labor Day weekend
Those thousands of jazz fans pouring into Grant Park along Chicago’s Lake Michigan know that they are in for a real treat each Labor Day weekend as the top names in jazz come to play. In addition to its outstanding location, with easy access to transportation, hotels, and city center, it’s a completely free event. Created in 1974 by a group of Chicago musicians to honor Duke Ellington following his death, the Chicago Jazz Festival today has expanded to include hundreds of acts in a wide range of music variations. Sponsored by the Jazz Institute and the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, jazz can be experienced at both the Petrillo band shell and at small stages scattered throughout the park. Events also spill over to the Chicago Cultural Center across the street from the park. The music begins at noon and carries on into late evening, when diehard fans head out for the jazz and blues clubs sprinkled throughout the city.


For those who love jazz, there’s nothing better than a live performance, and as can be seen by the huge numbers attending these annual festivals, jazz continues to be a draw. Whether on the shores of Lake Geneva or Lake Michigan, combine talented jazz musicians with a crowd of jazz lovers. and you’ve got a truly wonderful musical event.