The City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs celebrates the 35th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival, Memorial Day weekend, May 26 – 28, 2012 in Historic Piedmont Park. The Festival weekend will feature music on three stages with performances by jazz legends and young guns and is FREE and open to the public. The Festival experience will also include a Jazz Eco Village, interactive kids play areas, jazz education workshops, and vendors displaying some of the city’s finest arts & crafts, food & drinks, and merchandise. The Atlanta Jazz Festival is the perfect way to start your Memorial Day weekend!

The mission of the Atlanta Jazz Festival is to expose and entertain a diverse audience of Jazz aficionados, young Jazz enthusiasts and musical artists to the rich heritage and variety of Jazz as an authentic form of traditional American music. Regarded as one of the country’s largest free jazz festivals, they are proud to continue a tradition of presenting Jazz in its purest form as a cultural and educational event for millions of citizens and visitors.

The Atlanta Jazz Festival provides the City with an opportunity to unify Atlanta’s diverse population, to celebrate Atlanta’s rich cultural heritage and to promote tourism.

In 1977 organizers of the first “Atlanta Free Jazz Festival” wanted to host a celebration where the music would be a liberated art form at no cost to the community. Only the best jazz would do. They pulled together the 29 act festival on a shoestring budget with sponsors such as Coca Cola and Peaches Record Store. By 1984 when ‘Free’ was dropped from the name the Atlanta Jazz Festival had major national sponsorship and a reputation for pulling in some of the top Jazz artists in the world but the commitment to keep the jazz free flowing and the festival free of charge remained. Over the years the Atlanta Jazz Festival has been backdrop to musical legends such as Miles Davis, Dizzie Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, Herbie Hancock, The Heath Brothers, Nina Simone and others.

For more information, visit www.atlantafestivals.com.