Every year The Cork Jazz Festival is held in Cork City, Ireland over the October Bank Holiday weekend. It is the biggest jazz event in Ireland and numerous world famous musicians and bands and thousands of music fans from all over the world visit every year. In 2010 about 50,000 music fans visited the city for the event and listened to jazz played by over 1,000 musicians from over 30 countries.
This jazz festival has a great reputation all over the world and many of the leading musicians have played there during its 35 years. Some of the big stars that have played there include Ella Fitzgerald, Cleo Laine, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and many more. Most of Irelands great jazz players including great guitarist Louis Stewart have appeared from time to time. Every year brings its new stars and in 2010 it was the turn of the Esbjorn Svenson Trio, Mose Allison Quartet, Gary Burton – Richard Galliano Quartet and The Blin Boys of Alabama among others to wow the crowds.
There are over 80 venues throughout the city including concert halls, theatres, lounge bars and hotels as well as street music. The biggest venues are The Cork Opera house, The Everyman Palace Theatre, The Half Moon Theatre, The Granary, The Firkin Crane Theatre and The Metropole Hotel. These are the venues where the main events are held but many people prefer the smaller venues where the fringe events take place.
Although Jazz was considered mainstream in the mid twentieth century, especially in America and Europe, it is really a minority musical genre nowadays although there was something of a revival in the 60s and 70s with experimentation and various mixtures of Jazz and Rock Fusion.
Cork is looking forward to another great Jazz Festival in 2011. The dates for this years festival are October 28th – 31st. Festival goers are advised to book accommodation early as hotels and bed and breakfasts in the city tend to be booked out for that weekend. Book Cork Hotels and Cork B&B at Stay in Cork.
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