Cape Town Jazz Festival

The 2014 Cape Town Jazz Festival will be scheduled for 28th/29th March 2014 and this years lineup is tipped to be better than 2013’s headline acts of Buena Vista Social Club, Jill Scott and Brand New Heavies! Taking place in the world renowned Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) this jazz fest is one to put in your calendars!

Videos

Cape Town Jazz Festival 2013 Highlights

History

The Cape Town Jazz Festival is celebrating it’s 15 year birthday this time round. Attracting some 34,000 people in 2013 (up from 14,000 when it was founded) and growing year on year, we hope to see it even bigger than ever.

Up there with the Montreaux Jazz Fest and the Dutch North Sea Jazz Festival, the CTJF brings more than 40 international and local artists together to perform over 5 stages in South Africa’s capital each March. The festival is known as ‘Africa’s Grandest Gathering’ where people can come from all over the world to share a love of the finest jazz music. The festival used to be called the Cape Town North Sea Jazz Festival because of a close association with the Dutch North Sea Jazz Fest. Now it is officially recognised as the largest jazz festival in the world and the largest in Africa (see article).

Whilst most of the festival is a paid event, every year before the main festival a free open air concert is held in Greenmarket Square for anyone who wants to attend.

A good review of Cape Town Jazz Festival 2013 (and the transport there, a bit of sightseeing etc, page 2 you’ll get to the festival review), you can check out an article on All About Jazz which summarizes the experience pretty well.

Photo Gallery

More Photos in the ‘Gallery‘ Tab below.

Lineup & Schedule

The 2014 Cape Town Jazz Festival lineup is shown below. Check back regularly for further details. Follow us on Facebook, bookmark this page or ⇩ subscribe to lineup notifications ⇩:

Cape Town Jazz Festival 2014 Lineup

SOUTH AFRICAN
AKA and Da.L.E.S; The Mike Rossi Project: Trespassing Permitted; The Blue Notes Tribute Orkestra; Bokani Dyer & Kyle Shepherd; Mathew Gold; Mi Casa; The Shape of Strings to Come: Jimmy Dludlu (featuring Alvin Dyers, Richard Ceasar and Saudiq Khan, with C-Base Collective); and, The Worcester Secondary School Band

INTERNATIONAL
Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya; Andreya Triana (UK); Kirk Whalum “The Gospel According To Jazz Africa” Chapter I ; Frank Paco Art Ensemble (Mozambique); Lalah Hathaway (USA); Level 42 (UK); Moh Dediouf (Senegal); Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Trio (USA); Shakatak (UK); Tasha’s World (The Netherlands); Tizer Quintet(USA);

Official page for the Cape Town Jazz Fest 2014 lineup

2014 Cape Town Jazz Fest Programme/Schedule

what do you think of this years lineup?

Please help secure the future of this event by sharing on your social media channels. It only takes 2 seconds and with your support we can increase exposure of the event, boost ticket sales, attract more festival-goers and organize better festivals for the future. We need your support, if you can, please help. Thank you.

The 2013 lineup included (but was not limited to!): Ravi Coltrane, Steve Turre, Mafikizolo, Robert Glasper, Matt Garrison

The 2012 lineup included (not limited to):  Lauryn Hill, Mike Stern, James Ingram, Zahara, Dave Koz

If you’ve heard of any rumours of who might be playing or headlining then please leave them in the comments below (also in the tabbed section).

Venue

This year’s jazz fest will be held at the CTICC- Cape Town International Convention Centre in a number of it’s auditoriums and other staged rooms.

 

Tickets

Tickets for the Cape Town Jazz Festival officially go on sale on the 28th November 2013 and are available from Computicket outlets, Shoprite Checkers outlets and via the Computicket website.

The prices for tickets are as follows (with a rough conversion into USD$)

Early Bird Special to first 1000 weekend passes purchased : R725.00  (USD$73.00) (- SOLD OUT, 4TH FEB 2014)

Thereafter:
R490 Day Pass (USD$49.00)
R795 Weekend Pass  (USD$80.00)
Rosies Tickets: R30 per performance (Rosies tickets go on sale mid-February 2014) (USD$2.71)

Hotels & Accommodation

The cheapest accommodation options I could find in and around Cape Town, South Africa during festival period (late March) are shown below:

*** Prices will rise the closer you get to the festival dates so book early and avoid disappointment… ***

If you are on a super shoe-string budget then search HostelWorld and get a bed in a hostel for as little as $6.21!.

(for the Über rich you can stay at the One&Only, Cape Towns most expensive hotel @ rooms starting from R6800 per night (USD$680.00!)

For a full list of good hotels to stay in during the festival period I would highly recommend visiting Hotels.com – Cape Town, South Africa.

Note that there is NO TENT CAMPING at the Cape Town Jazz Festival. If you do have a love for the outdoors and want to camp, you can pitch up at one of the many campsites and camping grounds in and around Cape Town and the Surrounds.

If you wanted to rent a camper van and explore the surrounding areas during the festival period I would recommend going with a reputable company like BoBo Campers or Helderberg Camper Hire make sure to check out the best things to do and see in the area, a good list: TimeOut: 20 Great Things to do in Cape Town.

Flights & Transportation

The nearest international airport to the CTICC (festival venue) is the Cape Town Airport (CPT) and is located approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the city centre. To get to the city from the airport you have a number of options available to you:

Grab a Taxi

Metered taxis from the airport to the city center will be roughly R300 – R400 (USD$30-$40).

Hire a Car

Car hire is available at the airport though is expensive. Go with reputable company, all of these serve for airport collection/drop-off: Tempest Car Hire, Avis & Hertz – all have 24 hour offices.

Take the MyCiti shuttle bus – MyCiti Website

The MyCiti shuttle bus costs R57 for adults and R28.10 for children between the ages of four and eleven (children younger than four travel for free). The bus leaves the airport every 20 minutes between 05h10 and 22h00.

Currently around 10 airlines fly into Cape Town Airport (list of airlines here). To get the best flight deals I would use SkyScanner as they take 0% commission and are rarely beaten on price. Feel free to do a quick check on prices using their official flight checker below (note: Results will open in a new browser window so you won’t leave this page 8-)):

Additional transport info and a map of this festivals location can be found in the tabbed ‘Map & Transport Hubs‘ section below.

Interview

We currently have not been able to interview anybody at the Cape Town Jazz Festival, if you work for the festival and would like to answer a few questions for this section of your listing, please contact me so that we can get something arranged, thank you.

If you require any further information on this festival or would like to leave a message for others then please use the comments section below.

NB. You will also find tabs below which display photo galleries, live festival news, transport information etc – make sure you check them out before you leave and visit again soon as festival pages are being continually updated with new info.

Additional Resources

• Top 20 UNUSUAL (but somehow essential :-s ) Festival Items
• Wikipedia on Cape Town International Jazz Festival