Sacramento Jazz Jubilee

Every Memorial Day Weekend since 1974, Old Sacramento and other downtown venues have drawn a horde of jazz fans to the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the top jazz festival in the West.


Sponsored by the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, the event features a lineup that includes more than 100 bands from all over the country—and all over the stylistic map: Beyond the traditional jazz, there's blues, Western swing, ragtime, salsa, zydeco, barbershop, and just about every other jazz-influenced music genre imaginable.


The event kicks off with a parade on Friday morning and runs through Monday, propelled by a number of unique shows along the way: children's concerts; a Sunday morning "Celebration of Faith" with upbeat gospel; almost a dozen youth groups; and a "Swing Dance Extravaganza" featuring hundreds of top swing dancers, from around the country, in competition.