{"id":35308,"date":"2026-08-09T22:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=35308"},"modified":"2026-08-09T22:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:48:39","slug":"la-jazz-festival-canceled-at-last-minute-ahead-of-inaugural-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=35308","title":{"rendered":"LA Jazz Festival Canceled at Last Minute Ahead of Inaugural Run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe inaugural LA Jazz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/festival-2\/\" id=\"auto-tag_festival-2\" data-tag=\"festival-2\">Festival<\/a>, scheduled to begin Friday (Aug. 7), has been canceled at the last minute by organizers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe 17-day festival was set to bring artists from more than 13 countries to venues across Los Angeles, with organizers expecting approximately 250,000 attendees throughout its run. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cDue to significant, unanticipated last-minute public safety and municipal costs associated with the final permitting of the On The Beach Festival, we have reached the decision to unfortunately postpone this year\u2019s inaugural LA Jazz Festival,\u201d organizer Martin Ludlow said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cAlthough this decision was an extremely difficult one to reach, our commitment to the audiences and artists participating in the festival is to have a first-class experience worthy of the great legacy of Jazz and our great city. We were encouraged by the enthusiastic support of the artists on the bill, the fans and our sponsors for this inaugural event, and we look forward to presenting all of the components of this incredible cultural opportunity for Los Angeles and the world in 2027 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/john-legend\/\">John Legend<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/janelle-monae\/\">Janelle Mon\u00e1e<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/funkadelic\/\">Parliament Funkadelic<\/a> featuring George Clinton, Raphael Saadiq and Charlie Wilson were among the artists scheduled to perform at L.A.\u2019s Dockweiler Beach during the festival\u2019s Jazz on the Beach closing weekend on Aug. 22-23.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe weekend was also set to feature Free Nationals &amp; Friends, Big Freedia, Original Koffee, Joey Alexander and Ezra Collective. Other special performances and collaborations included Michelle Coltrane Celebrates the Coltrane Centennial and an appearance by the L.A. Jazz Festival Foundation Youth Band.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe festival\u2019s opening-night festivities were to feature Lalah Hathaway and Chief Adjuah, along with additional performers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe are so grateful to all the artists \u2014 from our headliners to our musicians in the parks, many of whom went above and beyond to make this affordable to the community,\u201d Ludlow continued. \u201cAll current ticket holders for LA Jazz Festival events will be refunded in full within 30 days. We apologize deeply for this situation and vow to make this right over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/concerts\/la-jazz-festival-2026-lineup-john-legend-janelle-monae-1236237163\/\">festival had been planned<\/a> as a sprawling citywide celebration of jazz and related musical styles. Its programming included a Caribbean street carnival; Jazz in the Park, a series of 25 free <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/concerts\/\" id=\"auto-tag_concerts\" data-tag=\"concerts\">concerts<\/a> in urban parks; Jazz After Dark, a series of free pop-up performances in clubs, restaurants and other venues; and the State of Jazz Conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tStubHub was also announced as the official ticket marketplace of the LA Jazz Festival. Airbnb had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/airbnb-city-of-la-partner-first-los-angeles-jazz-festival\/\">previously been announced<\/a> as the event\u2019s inaugural title sponsor.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubpass.co\/billboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2HpFicp.png\" alt=\"Billboard VIP Pass\" style=\"max-width: 100%;height: auto\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inaugural LA Jazz Festival, scheduled to begin Friday (Aug. 7), has been canceled at the last minute by organizers. The 17-day festival was set to bring artists from more than 13 countries to venues across Los Angeles, with organizers expecting approximately 250,000 attendees throughout its run. \u201cDue to significant, unanticipated last-minute public safety and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/john-legend-june-2025-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}