Cape Town Jazz Festival

The 2014 Cape Town Jazz Festival will be scheduled for 28th/29th March 2014 and this years line-up 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!

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.
&

Line-Up

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 line-up 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 Line-up

2014 Cape Town Jazz Fest Programme/Schedule

 

The 2013 Line-up 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.

This PDF shows the location of the CTICC in relation to the surrounding hotels and area.

 

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 date so book early and avoid disappointment… ***