The full lineup for Jazz'n Downtown: The Ultimate Jazz & Arts Experience is out, ahead of the festival's debut on Saturday, October 3, 2026 in downtown Milford, Connecticut.
By day, two outdoor main stages at Lisman Landing and Parsons Plaza carry a lineup built to swing in every direction. Grammy winner Zaccai Curtis brings his Cubop Lives! project, trombonist and composer Wycliffe Gordon leads his own set, and Broadway-and-jazz vocalist Tina Fabrique headlines alongside him. MAC awardee and emerging artist Anton Kot shares the bill with vocalist Alicia Olatuja, 1920s specialists the Hot Club of Black Rock, smooth jazz pianist Jay Rowe, big band leader Benny Benack III, the all-female NOLA-style Brass Queens, gypsy swing outfit the Kruno Spisic Trio, Connecticut institution the Galvanized Jazz Band (a fixture of the state's jazz scene since 1971), Brazilian jazz trio Boukas/Fuller, and a run of additional performers including Chino Pons, Etienne Charles, and Jimmy Greene. It's a full day of overlapping sets across genres — hot jazz, smooth jazz, big band, gypsy swing, Brazilian and Cuban jazz — with something starting more or less continuously from stage to stage.
The night belongs to one ticketed event: the Jazz Icons Tribute, a concert at Parsons' Veterans Memorial Hall honoring the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, featuring Wycliffe Gordon and opened by Tina Fabrique. Tickets to that concert alone run $75 to $125 per person, and it's the only piece of the day that requires a purchase on its own.
Everything else starts from a strong baseline: general festival admission — the art stroll, the outdoor stages, the Market, and the day's activities — is free, though the Milford Arts Council is asking people to register in advance through Eventbrite so organizers can track attendance and keep registrants updated. For an extra $30 per class, festivalgoers can also book into beginner-friendly dance lessons throughout the day: Nia at 10:30, swing and foxtrot at 11:30, salsa at 12:45, and Argentine tango at 1:45.
For anyone who wants the day handled end to end, two VIP tiers are available, and both are explicitly capped. The All-Inclusive VIP Pass is $500 per person, limited to 200 passes, and includes VIP zone access at both stages with premier front-of-stage and waterfront café seating, guaranteed brunch or lunch and dinner reservations, reserved parking, an orchestra-level seat at the evening Jazz Icons Tribute Concert, and a commemorative festival poster. The VIP Jazz'n Day Pass covers all of that except the evening concert seat, at $400 per person, limited to just 100 passes.
Whichever way you'd like to experience it, from a free afternoon wandering the art stroll and outdoor stages to a full VIP day capped off with the Fitzgerald and Armstrong tribute, details and registration are up now at jazzndowntown.org/tickets.
"The night belongs to one ticketed event: the Jazz Icons Tribute...honoring the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong."