Overview The Rochester International Jazz Festival puts more than 300 shows, over 110 of them free, into nine days in June across 19 venues within walking distance of one another in downtown Rochester's East End and Midtown. It runs European-style: a Club Pass opens the club venues, where seating is first-come, first-served, so a night can take in several sets on foot, while ticketed headliners play Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre and free headliners play outdoor stages. More than 1,700 artists perform. On site Gibbs Street closes and becomes Jazz Street, with a stage of its own, beside the Eastman School of Music. The Club Pass rooms include Kilbourn Hall, Hatch Recital Hall, Montage Music Hall, Temple Theater, Max of Eastman Place, The Duke, the Theater at Innovation Square and a Roots and Americana series at The Little Theatre; in 2026 the pass covered 174 shows at ten venues. The Wegmans Stage at Parcel 5 carries the free headliners, with the East and Chestnut Stage and the Central Library also free. Jam sessions start at 10:30 each night at the Hyatt Regency and Vanni's Jazz Lounge at the Inn on Broadway, and free workshops run for music students at Eastman. Audience Club Pass holders spend the evening moving between rooms, and because club seating is not reserved they line up at the next venue between sets. Daytime workshops bring music students onto the Eastman campus, and the 10:30 jam sessions hold a late crowd downtown after the headliners end. Talent and Influencers Kodak Hall's 2026 headliners included Bob James and Harvey Mason, Arturo Sandoval, Hiromi's Sonicwonder, The Headhunters, Chris Botti, Gladys Knight, and Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, while Galactic, Ana Popovic and Tito Puente Jr. with Néstor Torres played free at Parcel 5. Wynton Marsalis, Smokey Robinson and Thundercat played in 2025. The first edition, in 2002, had Aretha Franklin, Norah Jones and Sonny Rollins; Jeff Beck and Herbie Hancock came in 2010, and Erykah Badu, Gregg Allman and Chick Corea in 2016. Track record John Nugent and Marc Iacona founded the festival in 2002. Attendance: 15,000 in 2002, 120,000 in 2007, 162,000 in 2010, 205,000 in 2016, 211,000 in 2023. The 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled for COVID-19, and the 2026 festival, the 23rd, counted more than 211,000. The festival puts its regional economic impact at more than $230 million, and by 2026 its scholarship program with the Eastman School of Music had awarded 46 scholarships worth over $300,000. Brand presence Xerox held the festival's title from 2009 to 2018 and CGI Communications from 2018 to 2024, when Rochester Regional Health took it. Below the title, partners own pieces of the footprint: in 2026 the free outdoor stage carried Wegmans' name and the festival app was sponsored by Harris Beach Murtha, and a water partner was offered Yoga Palooza, a free family yoga, music and mindfulness event, with a kiosk on Jazz Street. Sponsor logos run on club passes and credential badges, on signage in every Club Pass venue for all nine nights, on barricade banners and video monitors, and in a fold-out brochure printed in 65,000 copies.