Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival

Nine years ago the Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival was started Canadian entrepreneur Colin Gorrie and local Bristol musician Denny Ilett.  They shared the belief that Bristol needed and deserved a high calibre festival dedicated to jazz and blues. Bristol’s long and illustrious association with jazz dates back to the ‘50s and ‘60s when a dizzying array of stars regularly played to sell-out audiences at Colston Hall.

A small team was assembled and set out to produce a jazz and blues festival unlike any other for a maverick city that likes to break the rules.

Our programme is designed to appeal to music lovers of all ages and tastes and over the years we have successfully grown and diversified our audience considerably. We promote jazz and blues in a way that makes these important genres accessible and appealing to a wide and diverse audience, and celebrate include the incredible local talent Bristol has to offer.