The Detroit Jazz Festival is a world-class event with a world-class audience. A partnership with the Festival ensures that your product will be in front of hundreds of thousands of savvy consumers.
For more information contact:
Live from the future home of the Gretchen C. Valade Jazz Center at Wayne State University.
BECOME A CORPORATE SPONSOR
The Detroit Jazz Festival is a world-class event with a world-class audience. A partnership with the Festival ensures that your product will be in front of hundreds of thousands of savvy consumers.
For more information contact:
MAKE A DONATION
Support the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation when shopping with Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow the instructions at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201365360
and select Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation as your charitable organization.
The Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation graciously thanks you for your support. Your gift helps to protect the world largest admission free jazz festival, year-round community outreach and other pre-Festival activities. Most importantly, you are preserving Detroit’s great jazz legacy for future generations.
To sign up for the Kroger Community Program, click the link and follow the instructions to Create a Digital Account: https://www.kroger.com/i/community/community-rewards
ABOUT US
For nearly 40 years, the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation has celebrated Detroit’s rich history of jazz music by providing year-round concerts and educational programming, and of course, organizing the world’s largest free jazz festival, featuring world-class talent, over Labor Day weekend.
With the support of corporate sponsors, philanthropic organizations, individual donors and volunteers, the Detroit Jazz Festival is free to music fans looking to revel in the artistry and improvisation of jazz legends, rising stars, legacy and homecoming artists. Each year’s lineup of more than 60 performances as remarkable and diverse as the genre itself, as well as spontaneous late-night jam sessions, offers something for everyone.
Our year-round educational programming creates one-of-a-kind opportunities for regional students and aspiring musicians to help them achieve artistic excellence, while our concerts celebrate the works of students and mentors, in addition to local and national artists.
The Detroit International Jazz Festival was founded in 1980 by Robert McCabe and the Detroit Renaissance. Along with the Detroit Grand Prix and the International Freedom Festival, the Festival was intended to bring people into the city and to provide all segments of the population with world-class entertainment.
From 1980 to 1991, the Festival flourished through a partnership with the highly regarded international jazz festival in Montreux, Switzerland. In 1991, the Festival merged with Detroit’s Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, where it resided until September 2005.
In March 2005, Detroit philanthropist and Mack Avenue Records Chairman Gretchen Valade emerged as a major sponsor of the Festival. With additional support from the Knight Foundation, the Festival expanded in all aspects. Its new footprint, covering three blocks, provided two additional stages and more space for food vendors and other activities.
Looking to attract new audiences to jazz and the Festival, in 2011, jazz musician Chris Collins was appointed as artistic director and has since taken on the role of president of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation. With Collins’ vision and the support of the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation Board of Directors – led by Chair Gretchen Valade – the Foundation has continued to integrate new and exciting artistic elements and opportunities into the signature event, in addition to year-round programming.
The Detroit Jazz Festival is now managed and produced by the Detroit International Jazz Festival Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in 2006. Through the generosity of Detroit philanthropist and Mack Avenue Records Chairman Gretchen Valade, the Foundation also established a significant endowment to support Festival operations. The staff and advisory committee continuously work to raise the balance of operating costs through corporate partnerships, contributions and earned-income opportunities.
Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center is the official hotel of the Festival and is located in the center of the action, adjacent to Hart Plaza.
The “Motor City” continues to be a hot spot for jazz and popular music, with a vibrant club scene, some of the most exciting young artists in the business and, of course, the Detroit Jazz Festival.
Get Directions
Be one of the first to know about upcoming Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation events, how to get VIP seating at the Detroit Jazz Festival, membership packages, and much more by joining our mailing list.
CONTACT US
19908 Harper Avenue
Harper Woods, MI 48225
(313) 469-6564 (Main Office)
(888) 806-0967 (Fax)
