Billed as the 10 hot days and nights of the coolest music in town, the 35th TD Victoria International JazzFest gives people a little bit of everything to look forward to.
From Marquee Series headliners that include Dee Dee Bridgewater & The Memphis Soulphony, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Macy Gray and the Grammy Award-winning Jerry Douglas Band, to Late Night Gig and Jam Sessions at the Victoria Event Centre, to nearly two dozen free events featuring some of the Island’s top young emerging jazz talent in Centennial Square, JazzFest presents a culturally and musically diverse lineup.
WATCH: Jerry Douglas on the dobro
The full lineup and schedule for the June 22 to July 1 festival was released Tuesday and can be found online at jazzvictoria.ca.
As well as the traditional JazzFest venues – which this year does not include Hermann’s Jazz Club due to pending litigation – the ticketed Presentation Series returns to Oak Bay High’s Dave Dunnet Community Theatre, with concerts by Ranee Lee, the Vincent Herring Quartet and the Julian Lage Trio.
There’s also two ticketed nights of funk, hip hop, Bhangra and world music in Centennial Square with Ghost-Note and Red Baraat.
The 80 performances and four workshops/clinics hosted by festival performers at Oak Bay High will involve more than 350 musicians and 61 bands from across Canada, the U.S., the UK, Poland and even the Sudan.
More than 40,000 people, many of them visitors to the Capital Region, are expected to attend shows at this year’s festival, which has an operating budget of $1 million and is projected to generate economic impact of more than $5.5 million for the city.
