About Us

The Festival has earned critical international acclaim for presenting innovative jazz and creative improvised music in a community setting.

It features a main stage program showcasing Canadian and international artists, a free downtown jazz tent on the Saturday of the Festival weekend, and numerous other concerts at a variety of community venues, including churches, an art gallery and the youth music centre.

Opening the Festival is a jazz colloquium that looks at the music's influence on society and culture. Another educational component is the mainly off-season Jazz in the Schools program, which exposes elementary, high school, and university students to teaching from highly improvisational jazz artists.

Finally, the Festival has commissioned three original works, including the jazz opera Québécité. This year (its 15th anniversary) it will mount a late-night, outdoor Afro-Cuban jazz carnaval at the tent, accompanied by large-scale theatrical puppets.

The Jazz Festival has grown from a small enterprise with audiences in the hundreds into a large event that draws upwards of 11,000 listeners annually. It occurs every year on the weekend following Labour Day in downtown Guelph, Ontario. This year's dates are Sept. 3-7, 2008.