What started as a 10-day series of jazz concerts held on the back of a flatbed truck and at venues all around the City of Clearwater, has evolved into a major regional jazz festival and draw for tens of thousands of visitors. Now in its 34th year, the Clearwater Jazz Holiday is a world-class gathering of the some of the greatest talents and greatest fans of jazz. The event takes full advantage of its home in Clearwater, Florida, offering music against the backdrop of warm breezes, brilliant sunsets and one of the world's greatest beaches, on the Gulf of Mexico.

Over its 34 year history, the Clearwater Jazz Holiday has featured such legendary talents as Tony Bennett, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Mann, Dave Brubeck, Tito Puente, Stephan Grappelli, Stan Getz, and the Count Basie Orchestra, to name only a few. Today's most popular and innovative jazz stars have also made stops in Clearwater, including Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Al Dimeola, Stanley Clarke, Kevin Mahogany, Hiroshima, Julian Coryell, the Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra, Acoustic Alchemy, Herbie Hancock, Paquito D'Rivera with New York Voices, Rick Braun, The Neville Brothers, Branford Marsalis, Stanley Clarke - Bela Fleck - Jean-Luc Ponty, Koko Taylor, Boney James, Kenny G, Manhattan Transfer, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Patti Austin, Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Trombone Shorty, Maceo Parker, Brian Culbertson, George Benson, Esperanza Spalding, The Avett Brothers and Bonnie Raitt.

The Clearwater Jazz Holiday is a unique community event, open to the public and administered by a charitable foundation, The Clearwater Jazz Holiday Foundation, The City of Clearwater, and its volunteers. The Jazz Holiday not only brings live music to the Tampa Bay area, it benefits jazz education through its scholarship and educational activities each year.

Clearwater Jazz Holiday programs are funded in part by grants from the State of Florida , Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pinellas County Commission through the Cultural Development Grants Program of the Cultural Affairs Department

The 4-day Jazz Holiday is administered by an all-volunteer staff, "The Jazz Force," which plans and executes the hundreds of services needed to accommodate more than 60,000 visitors during the third week in October.

It is the mission of the Clearwater Jazz Holiday to be the leading proponent of jazz entertainment and education in Florida through the annual presentation of a world-class, live music festival in Clearwater, Florida during the third week of October and to promote tourism to Pinellas County as a key component of this celebration.

For more information about the Jazz Holiday or volunteering during the event, please call (727) 461-5200 or send us an email.