Nice Jazz Festival

Nice jazz festival is the major Summer festival in Nice. Every July close on 50,000 people go and listen to the live music performed on 3 stages within Roman amphitheatres on Cimiez hill. Despite the number of visitors it never feels crowded - there is plenty of room amongst the olive trees to mingle and stroll.

Created back in 1948, Nice's jazz festival is one of the top three jazz festivals in Europe and has attracted some of the biggest names in jazz: Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Art Blake, Charlie Mingus and Jimmy Cliff to name only a few. The festival also attracts other musicians (BB King, Lou Reed, James Brown, Brian Ferry and modern artists such as Joss Stone, Katie Melua and Jamiroquai for example) to Nice who tend to play at "fringe" events all round the city as well as the jazz festival itself.

The official Nice jazz festival in Cimiez tends to kick off around 7pm and the acts rotate every hour or so on each stage until midnight(ish). Spectators are encouraged to wander from stage to stage to soak up the music throughout the warm evening.

Everywhere else in the city gets all musical at the same time with plenty of Blues, Soul, Funk, Reggae and World music on offer too. Most bars and nightclubs will have some live music on during the festival.

Here is the official Nice jazz festival website.

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