Overview Savannah Music Festival is a spring music festival spread across the Historic District of Savannah, Georgia, and it bills itself as Georgia's largest musical arts event. For about two and a half weeks, jazz, chamber music, American roots, blues and world music run at several downtown venues on the same days. It is a non-profit. Donors, sponsors and grants keep its year-round music education free for local students. On site Concerts play in restored theaters, a church, a converted iron foundry and a museum garden. The headline shows go to Trustees Theater and Lucas Theatre for the Arts, each with more than 1,100 seats. Trinity United Methodist Church on Telfair Square is the main classical room. Kehoe Iron Works has a full bar and holds dance parties with club-style sets, while Victory North sells standing room only. Noon30 concerts fill the lunch hour. Late at night, ENCORE after-parties put festival artists on stage with local bands. Sponsors and donors wait out the gaps between shows in a hospitality lounge. Audience Most patrons live within an hour's drive. Others drive in from Atlanta, Jacksonville and Charleston or fly in from Europe, Japan and Brazil, and many of those visitors book hotels and rentals for a week or longer. People usually buy for more than one concert and walk from venue to venue. They also come back: some have been to more than fifteen festivals. Talent and Influencers Recent lineups included Pat Metheny, Old Crow Medicine Show, Robert Cray, Richard Thompson, Larkin Poe, Tank and the Bangas and Christone "Kingfish" Ingram. Before that came Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Angelique Kidjo, Taj Mahal, Branford Marsalis, Renee Fleming, Rosanne Cash, Samara Joy, Zakir Hussain, Buddy Guy and Tedeschi Trucks Band. Visiting artists teach master classes for Jazz Academy students. The next lineup is not announced yet. Track record The festival has run for more than three decades. Readers of Savannah Magazine voted it Best Festival. At a recent festival, patrons generated $6.1 million in direct spending in Savannah. Its Musical Explorers program, built with Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute, brings thousands of young students from Georgia and South Carolina schools to concerts at Trustees Theater. Brand presence The public school system holds the Founder slot at the top of the sponsor wall. Below it sit five tiers from Diamond to Bronze, then a Festival Society of local businesses and a group of regional media partners. Concert sponsors adopt specific shows. Their name is read from the stage before the music starts, their logo goes on venue signage and in the program book, and their guests get lounge access and early entry. Bigger commitments put a name on a genre series, on a venue stage, or on the whole festival as presenting sponsor.