The Iowa City Jazz Festival kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday as the city’s annual Summer of the Arts continues. Like all Summer of Arts festivals, the jazz fest is free and open to the public. The three-day music event in downtown Iowa City will feature local and international jazz artists and performances covering a wide variety of styles, with something for everyone from long-time aficionados to jazz-curious newcomers.
“What I love about this festival is you don’t have to know a lot about jazz, just know that you’re going to enjoy some great music, and jazz is such a broad genre that you’re going to have the opportunity to hear a lot of different styles of jazz,” Summer of the Arts Executive Director Lisa Barnes told Little Village.
Highlights include the Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra on Friday night. Middagh, a Cedar Rapids native and University of Northern Iowa alum, made his mark as a jazz saxophonist and band leader before landing his current position as an assistant professor of Jazz at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris, called “one of the most important artists in jazz” by the Los Angeles Times, and his band Blackout will headline the festival on Saturday night.
Those looking to keep the evening going after the festival stage go dark on Friday and Saturday, can head over to Wilder in the Graduate Hotel for late-night jam sessions featuring local favorites, the Blake Shaw Quartet.
Shaw “brings in some of his friends to get things started, but a lot of the performers that are around and available will come sit in with them. Local musicians come sit in with them. And it’s just a really fun opportunity to kind of get up close and personal with some of the performers,” Barnes said.
A full schedule of events is available on the Summer of the Arts website.
Aside from the music, festival-goers will find booths featuring work by local artists and ones with information about local nonprofits, like the Englert Theatre and KCCK, the only public radio station dedicated to jazz in Iowa, as well as a dozen food vendors.
As in previous years, Iowa City’s Fourth of July-adjacent fireworks display will take place at the end of the festival’s Saturday night. Even though that means the fireworks will be on July 5 this year, it makes sense to celebrate the country’s birthday after a full day of celebrating a uniquely American art form. The fireworks will be located at the Old Capitol Museum and the show is scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m.
Road closures for the Iowa City Jazz Festival start at 6 a.m. on Friday. Clinton Street will be closed between Jefferson and Washington, and Iowa Avenue will be closed from Clinton to Dubuque Street. The streets are expected to reopen late Sunday night.
In addition to those street closures, “North Madison Street from Washington to Jefferson, and West Iowa Avenue from South Riverside Drive to the Pentacrest, will be closed to traffic right before, during, and immediately after the fireworks show,” according to a news release from the city.
