The 36th Annual 2013 Atlanta Jazz Festival brings in about 50 Thousand plus Attendees Memorial Day Weekend
Photo by L.A. Jackson
The Atlanta Jazz Festival is one of the Country’s Largest Free Jazz Festival, which takes place at Piedmont Park, located in the heart of midtown Atlanta. Historical Piedmont Park is one of Atlanta’s prime locations for a host of annual events, including Midtown Music Festival, the Atlanta Pride Festival, Dogwood Festival, and many more.
The Annual Jazz Festival was originally created by the former Mayor of Atlanta Georgia, Maynard Jackson. The first African-American Mayor of Atlanta, who has also had the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport named after him in his honor.
Atlanta 2013 Jazz Festival (c) 2013 Photo by Robb D. Cohen
One of the first time performers of this year’s event was Maynard Jackson’s youngest daughter, Singer Alexandra Jackson.
The Atlanta Jazz Festival organization says that they are a non-profit cultural organization, whose mission is to educate and entertain a diverse audience of jazz fans; and to nurture the next generation of jazz musicians.
Youtube clip by Only in the “A”
Here are just a few examples of some of the Atlanta Jazz Fest lineups: Rialto Youth Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Gordon Vernick . Cécile McLorin Salvant, Dominick Farinacci, Meshell Ndegeocello, José James, Tia Fuller, Aruán Ortiz, Gretchen Parlato, and Rudresh Mahanthappa
The Publicist for the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Karen Hatchett Says the 2013’s theme for the festival is “Generation Next”. This year’s festival is more about the new up and coming artists, focusing on the future generation of artists. This year also included something for the youth, which are two of the youth jazz band competition winners from two local high schools Benjamin E. Mays High School Jazz Orchestra and Westlake High School Jazz Ensemble, which performed on stage for the event.
2013 Atlanta Jazz Festival, Photo by L.A Jackson
Huge Crowd enjoying the 2013 Atlanta Jazz Festival (c) 2013 photo by D. Garvin
Atlanta Jazz Festival attendee, Tracy Sykes says “that the crowd was large, the weather was hot and the energy through the roof”. Sykes, also stated “that the best time to attend the event was late in the evening due to the hot weather.” She also made a point to say, along with many other attendees is, that the “event could have been a little better had there been a different or better lineup of performers.” Oh well, you can’t please them all!
Never-the-less, the Atlanta Jazz Festival is always the place to be for the Annual Memorial Day Weekend. Expect the event to get better and continue to grow annually, there’s always something for everyone.