Rochester International Jazz Festival

The CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival (RIJF) is one of the world’s leading jazz festivals, presenting legendary performers, familiar favorites, rising stars, and new discoveries from around the world.

RIJF is synonymous with Jazz in June when the joy of music brings the world to Rochester, New York. The multi-dimensional nine-day festival presents more than 1750 artists annually from around the world in 320+ shows at 20 venues.

Founded in 2002, the festival is produced by RIJF, LLC, a privately held company owned by Marc Iacona, Producer and Executive Director, and John Nugent, Producer and Artistic Director. Attendance has grown from 15,000 in 2002 to 211,000 in 2023. The economic impact delivered to the region over the past 20 years now exceeds $200 million.

RIJF navigates all genres of creative improvised music, bringing together unique musical sounds from many countries and highlighting international artists' take on the only truly American art form - jazz. The festival's European-style format, where people can park once and walk to and from all venues, is presented in three series plus special programs.