Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival
The biggest of its kind in Britain, the Jazz & Blues Festival gets the festival season off to a swinging start in July, making sure everyone's in the mood before its larger festival cousins hit town. And expect that Glenn Miller classic along the way somewhere, as everything from big band favourites to skiffle, ragtime and freeform jazz is on the menu at over 100 shows in a festival that just keeps growing.
As its size has increased, so too has the talent and diversity of its acts, with international stars coming together with the very best in Scottish talent to create one of the most vibrant and multi-cultural of all Edinburgh’s festivals. Don’t forget that vital blues ingredient either: previous years have seen the legendary BB King strut his stuff in the capital.
Regular highlights of the festival programme include Mardi Gras in the Grassmarket, where many of Edinburgh oldest and best pubs can be found, as a host of acts show off their stuff for free in the sun.
Combined with these outdoor extravaganzas are indoor candlelit serenades, as the memories of the late and great jazz idols of the past mix with the thrusting young avant gardists of the here and now, making for diverse festival for any generation.
Official website: www.edinburghjazzfestival.com