Umbria Jazz

About this festival

From the moment of its birth in 1973, Umbria Jazz was clearly different from the other Italian jazz festivals. While jazz was usually to be heard in small clubs and occasionally in theatres and concert halls, Umbria Jazz took the music into the historic town squares of Umbria to audiences of up to twenty thousand young people, and every concert was free.

The music of the New World was performed in the setting of Umbria’s medieval towns and spectacular scenery, and it was this unusual combination which gave the Festival its special appeal.