The Umbria Jazz Festival is one of the most important jazz festivals in the world and has been held annually since 1973, usually in the month of July, in Perugia, Italy.
Furthermore, the Umbria Jazz Winter Festival takes place annually in late December to early January in the city of Orvieto.
Umbria Jazz Festival
Since its start the festival turned into a quality jazz fiesta, one of the leading festivals in Europe.
The Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy attracts over 200,000 people each year for 10 days of live jazz music performed by critically acclaimed artists from around the world.
The Umbria Jazz Festival takes place in the streets of the Renaissance hill city of Perugia.
While still mostly a jazz fest, fans will be sure to see a wide plethora of different music genres including artists from rock and roll, world music, Cuban salsa and African tribal music backgrounds.
legends of jazz
Many performances take place outdoors whilst some paid concerts are hosted inside numerous venues all of which are spotted around the city.
The festival was initially held in many beautiful locations around Italy, some locations remain the same whilst others have taken a back seat to other, more suitable venues.
Past venues have included: Villalago, Piazza IV Novembre in Perugia, the Piazza del Popolo in Todi, the Albornoz Fortress in Spoleto, Romano theater in Gubbio and Piazza San Francesco in Umbertide.
It wasn’t until the 2nd half of the ’90s that the festival has been held in Perugia. Over the years the Umbria Jazz Festival has hosted many legends of jazz such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Ornette Coleman amongst the others, joined by famous bluesmen as Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Eric Clapton and James Brown.
The festival has also been host to numerous none-jazz bands including Santana, Sting, Van Morrison, Elton John and Phil Collins to name but a few.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
Perugia Fontevegge trainstation is served by local trains and by direct intercity trains from Rome-Termini station (about 2 hours) and Milan (via Bologna and Florence, about 5 hours).
You can also take a bus to Rome (Tiburtina station and Fiumicino airport) and Florence are operated by Società SULGA. For timetables and information go to http://www.sulga.it
Umbria International Airport is situated between Perugia and Assisi at Sant’Egidio and has three daily return flights to Roma Fiumicino Airport.
