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Festival History

Lansing JazzFest began in 1995 when the Old Town Business & Art Development Association, having successfully produced OctoberFest the year prior, discovered that music festivals are an excellent way to encourage people to visit and enjoy Old Town.

Lansing's jazz radio station,  89.7 WLNZ, signed on as a founding media sponsor, and MessageMakers became the festival's founding business sponsor that same year.

In its early days, local musicians donated their time to play at JazzFest and volunteers from the neighborhood and the local community pitched in to see that the 4,000-5,000 people in attendance had a good time.

JazzFest is the only Mid-Michigan festival to increase consistently in attendance every year since its beginning. Now, the number of attendees has grown to nearly 15,000, making sponsors and volunteers more important than ever!

Since its inception, JazzFest has welcomed such renowned artists as Eric Reed, the Professors of Jazz at MSU (Derrick Gardner, Randy Gelispie, Diego Rivera, Rick Roe, Rodney Whitaker, Sunny Wilkinson), Michael Kaeshammer, Straight Ahead, Marcus Belgrave, Don Phillips, Lisa Smith and Mike Skory, Sunrise II, Jazz Doggs, Tyrone Johnson, Claudia Schmidt Quintet, Dick Fizzell & The Dixieland Express, Tim Cunningham, Francis Kofi, Betty Joplin, Sheila Landis, Ritmo, Patti Richards, Los Gatos, Tyrone Johnson, and numerous regional and local acts. ( More detailed lists of past artists  are available.)

Today, WLNZ and MessageMakers remain founding supporters of JazzFest along with a committed team of over 150 volunteers.

JazzFest is THE place to enjoy the soothing rhythms and contagious beat of cool jazz tunes on a hot summer weekend.

Awards & Recognition

The Lansing JazzFest has been honored with a number of awards, including:

Festival Committee

The Lansing JazzFest would not be possible without the diligent efforts of its festival committee: