Durham Jazz Festival is a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing an annual Jazz Festival to the beautiful city of Durham.
Durham is uniquely placed to host a major regional jazz festival full of character and individuality. The city is home to a number of wonderful venues set in and around the awe-inspiring UNESCO World Heritage site of the City Centre, Cathedral, Castle and Durham Riverbanks.
We are really excited about the programme of events that we are curating for the 2026 jazz festival. Our programme combines large events and smaller, more intimate shows. We are bringing some major national acts to the city alongside talented local musicians who have also made a name for themselves in County Durham and the wider North East Region. We are also welcoming back some Local Heroes, who have made a name for themselves internationally and are now returning to perform in our beautiful city.
Our full programme will be announced over the next few weeks. We’d love for you to subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear our upcoming announcements and we look forward to welcoming you to our wonderful shows in October.
In September of last year, Alan Patrickson, John Lyons and Richard Turner, the three founding directors, came together to discuss the concept of launching a jazz festival in Durham.
Our aim in establishing the Durham Jazz Festival is to broaden the live music offer across the spectrum of jazz and related genres in Durham City and the wider county.
Our focus is on being an accessible annual festival – and appealing to a broad audience – bringing the joy of live music to people who might not otherwise experience this genre, as well as seasoned jazz audiences. We want to bring exceptional artists from the national and international world of jazz to Durham audiences and also showcase the amazing talent that already exists in the North East of England.
We are an emerging festival – and have big ambitions to put Durham City on the map for showcasing the very best of talent from the national jazz scene, at the same time as providing performance opportunities for up and coming for local and regional talent – working in partnership with local education establishments, grassroots promoter networks and music-focused arts organisations to develop our programme.
JOHN. (Director)
RICHARD. (Directorr)
ALAN. (Directorr)
Durham Jazz Festival is made possible with the help of our sponsors and supporters, in particular our headline sponsor Swinburne Maddison LLP – championing culture, creativity and live music in the city. If you’d like more information on how to become a sponsor, please get in touch.
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