The Annual Cork Jazz Festival

Just in time for one of the biggest and longest running music festivals in Ireland, I’d like to give you some information on the Cork Jazz Festival.

The Cork Jazz festival, hosted by Guinness, is an annual October bank holiday weekend event held in Cork, celebrating Jazz Music.  The festival has been drawing hundreds of musicians and thousands of music enthusiasts to the city since 1978.  I daresay that the Guinness has played its part in attracting a fair share of the crowd too :)

The Jazz festival started off as a relatively small event, but is now a world famous one which can attract some of the most famous names in Jazz.  Some of the past performers include Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton and Oscar Peterson.

The city centre of Cork is the best place to be during the festival.  This is where you’ll need to be to catch some of the top names.  This year venues such as the Savoy Theatre and The Everyman Palace will have artists such as Pee Wee Ellis and Bill Evans for you to enjoy.

The city centre may be the hub of the activity but if you’re looking for something a little bit more low key, then you’ll be quite pleased to know that most pubs on the outskirts of the city, the suburbs and in the more rural areas of Cork will be providing live music too.  I’d suggest making a quick call to a few pubs that you know of, to find out what they have lined up.  You’re not going to get the top names in Jazz that you would in the city, but you’ll still have a good night out (or 4) and you’ll be able to save a bit of money on lower entry fees.

The Jazz festival has expanded outside of the music in more recent years.  This year you can find a Jazz Photography Exhibition at the Triskel Arts Centre, Jazz Improv sessions around town, Jazz camp, street music and much much more.

Please see the official Cork Jazz website for all the information you may need to have a very enjoyable long weekend in Cork.

Dates: Oct 28 – 31 2011

---
Reminder: Please expand the Blog Archive on the right hand side menu to see older posts.
Follow Us on Twitter