Late April: Jazzkaar, Estonia
The eight-day Jazzkaar festival has been running for 35 years in the highly photogenic Baltic city of Tallinn. Headliners for 2025 include two award-winning Americans, singer Jazzmeia Horn (May 1, Alexela Concert Hall) and saxophone virtuoso Lakecia Benjamin (April 22, Von Krahl). Estonian jazz master Kristjan Randalu opens the festival at Von Krahl on April 20, reworking classical composer and countryman Jaan Rääts’ 1981 miniature compositions, Marginalia.
Mid-May: Jazz Sous Les Pommiers, France
“Jazz under the apple trees” has been a notable shindig since 1982 in the cathedral town of Coutances in Normandy, south of Cherbourg, and a mere hop across the sea from Jersey. This year’s attractions include Americans The Bad Plus, as well as the great French bass clarinettist Louis Sclavis. Every nook and cranny of the town is pressed into service for the festival, whose visitors buy a single pass to all the shows, whether indoors or out.
Mid-May: Xjazz, Germany
As one might expect from Berlin, XJazz is one of the edgier festivals, featuring a lot of electronic music, as well as a smattering of singer-songwriters and modern classicists. The city’s Kreuzberg district is stuffed with street art, alternative shops and hipster cafes. Sixty-plus acts perform across eight venues over the week. This year features the British saxophonist and poet Alabaster DePlume, as well as Sweden’s Yukimi.
Late June/early July: Südtirol Jazzfestival Alto Adige, Italy
Taking place across a whole scenic mountainside region of South Tyrol in northern Italy, this is a festival for the more musically adventurous, featuring lesser-known acts as well as those with a profile. In 2024 these included Austrian combo Shake Stew, plus Bristol-based electronic trio Hippo and Ruth Goller’s Skylla. Two venues play host each evening of the 10-day event – Cappuccini Park and the Batzen Sudwerk, a hip nightclub in the basement of the Batzen brewery. Last year, one gig could only be reached by cable car from Bolzano. Many shows are free and even the ticketed ones won’t break the bank.
Early July: Love Supreme, UK
The UK’s biggest jazz and soul festival, the three-day Love Supreme, is based on green fields (with camping) near Lewes in East Sussex, a stone’s throw from the home of the Glyndebourne opera. Since its foundation in 2013, it has quickly become a magnet for big crowds (around 60,000) and some humungous names, many from the USA. This year the jazz headliners include Branford Marsalis and Staney Clarke, eclipsed somewhat by a soul section which offers Smokey Robinson, Maxwell and En Vogue. You are at the mercy of the weather, but when the sun shines there’s nothing to beat it.
Mid-July: Umbria, Italy
Umbria Jazz Festival has been running for 10 days each year since 1973. It’s based in the ancient Etruscan city of Perugia, right in the centre of Italy, and last year presented 87 bands across 12 stages, each one with a specific musical identity. The biggest acts play at Arena Santa Giuliana. In 2024 these included the all-star quartet of Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Jonathan Blake, as well as Japanese piano star Hiromi, who seemingly turned up at every single summer festival lasy year. Mainstream jazz is to be found at the Teatro Morlacchi, and there’s intimate “chamber jazz” at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria. Gigs on three of the stages are free.
Mid-July: North Sea, Netherlands
The gargantuan North Sea Jazz Festival, held over three days, is where the American Big Beasts go, and it’s no surprise that they do: based under one roof at Rotterdam’s Ahoy complex, North Sea is apparently the world’s largest indoor music festival, with a dozen large arenas and a handful of smaller stages hosting 75,000 visitors annually. Rotterdam may not be particularly scenic, but the Ahoy is like a city within a city, full of bars, restaurants and merch shops. Last year Meshell Ndegeocello (artist in residence), Isaiah Collier, and young vibraphone sensation Joel Ross were among the stars.
Late July: Jazzaldia, Spain
In the bilingual Basque region of northern Spain is Donostia, aka San Sebastián. Founded in 1966, Jazzaldia is a big one by any standards, attracting nearly 200,000 visitors. Last year saw performances by John Zorn, Julian Lage and our own Jamie Cullum. There are around a hundred concerts on over a dozen stages both indoor (theatres, museums and auditoriums) and open-air, including Trinitate Plaza. The free gigs on Zurriola Beach and the Kursaal terraces are hugely popular.
Early August: Jazz em Agosto, Portugal
Based in Lisbon for the last 40 years, Jazz em Agosto is perhaps the most laid-back of all the festivals: it stages just 17 concerts over 11 nights. Compared with the hyperactivity of, say, North Sea, this is slow jazz, albeit not in the musical sense. The main gigs happen in the open-air amphitheatre stage in the Gulbenkian gardens, complete with a chorus of croaking frogs, as well as in the Grand Auditorium, and cosier venues like Auditorium 2. It’s another festival for those looking to explore the wilder shores of jazz.
Late August: Reykjavík, Iceland
Against the imposing backdrop of Mount Esja across the bay, Reykjavík’s jazz festival, founded in 1990, features contemporary and avant-garde jazz, as well as Latin jazz, gospel and big bands. Perhaps because it’s one of Europe’s smallest capitals, this colourful coastal city is an ideal location for live jazz. And despite lasting only five days, it manages to cram in an awful lot of music, with both international and Icelandic musicians. Gigs take place everywhere from churches to rooftop bars, but the main venue is the futuristic Harpa concert hall, with its superb acoustics and impressive architecture.
Early September: Punkt, Norway
Kristiansand is a picturesque seaside town in the far south of Norway that hosts Punkt. This small three-day festival serves up a very contemporary mixture of jazz and electronica (although not punk). Fans of the famous ECM record label will find themselves at home in the company of musicians like Norwegian jazz legend trumpeter Arve Henriksen, electronic improviser Jan Bang and guitarist Eivind Aarset.
