42nd Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival - Venues and first tranche of artists announced.
Saturday, March 07, 2026
The festival will take place from July 24th to August 2nd 2026 at various venues in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. The majority of events are free of admission. Press release attached.
We have received the following press release;
42nd Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival
Friday 24th July to Sunday 2nd August 2026
With confirmed band bookings now over the 100 mark, and the festival’s now partner hotel in place, this is a good news week for The 42nd Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival.
The festival will take place from July 24th to August 2nd this year – a little later than usual thanks to the World Cup football – we thought it better not to have a clash of dates – it wouldn’t have been fair to damage the attendance numbers of that football spectacular.
The festival hotel is the historic hotel and former coaching inn, The Plough & Harrow which dates back to 1704, making it probably the oldest hotel in the city – where both horses and guests could have stayed overnight. Among its many famous guests were Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales who regularly stayed there, and J.R.R. Tolkien who stayed there in 1916 while recovering from illness during World War I.
Neither of the above would recognise the Plough & Harrow during the festival, award with partying musicians and jazz and blues fans all having a rocking great time.
With 59 venues already on board and more ready to sign up, we will certainly reach our target of last year’s figure of 100 – spread throughout the City and Sandwell, as well as in Wolverhampton, Solihull and Sutton Coldfield and, waiting for final confirmation, Dudley and Walsall.
We are still in the process of booking the bands, but here’s a list to give some idea of what’s in store:
VENUES:
Winterbourne House
New Oscott Village
No. 18 Coffee & Wine Bar
The Red Lion, West Bromwich
AC Hotel
The Exchange
Botanical Gardens
Plough & Harrow
The Wellington
The Junction
Millennium Point
Bacchus Bar
All Bar One
Fighting Cocks
Omnon
Saint Paul’s Market
Vieni
Red Lion, Jewellery Quarter
The New Inn, Harborne
The Brasshouse
Old Joint Stock
Bournville Gardens Village
Longbridge Village
Barabara’s Bier Haus
Lightwoods House
Dishoom
Hilton Garden Inn
Core Theatre, Solihull
Water’s Edge Bandstand
West Bromwich Indoor Market
Ibis Birmingham New Street
Cote, Solihull
Moseley All-Services Club
Mailbox
Bar Estilo
Museum Collection Centre
Aston Hall
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Blakesley Hall
CBSO Centre
Cosy Club
Sarehole Mill
Thinktank
Wednesbury Museum
Haden Hill House
Bromwich Hall
Oak House
Chamberlain Square
La Bellezza
Albert Schloss
Dishoom
Would your venue like to get involved in the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival this year? Contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call the office on 0121 454 7020, and get involved in 10 days of fun, community and the very BEST of jazz and blues.
Headliners & Artists
King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys are currently on tour celebrating a most impressive 40 years on the road. BBC Broadcaster Paul Jones, long-time member of The Blues Band and Manford Mann, reckoned that King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys were “The hardest act to follow since the parting of the Red Sea,” while The Guardian wrote “Behind the fun and rollicking good times lies an outfit skilled enough for the horns to come on with the bite and precision of the Basie Band.”
Another headliner will be the now legendary, all star tribute to Billie Holiday, LADY SINGS THE BLUES, which will feature at The Core Theatre, Solihull on Friday 31st July. It’s a Best of British line-up with the finest of UK female jazz singers, Val Wiseman, along with Bruce Adams, trumpet, Mike Hall, tenor saxophone, Ian Bateman, trombone, Dave Newton, piano, Dave Green, double bass and Eric Ford, drums.
As always, more than 95% of the performances will be free admission, and here are just some of the sheer multitude of fine bands and musicians that can be seen and heard without having to pay for a ticket:
Stacy Mitchhart (USA)
Miho Hazama (Japan) with Soweto Kinch, Ivo Neame, Tom Farmer and Sharne Forbes
The Swing Cats (Spain)
La Voodoo Jazz (Spain)
Ben Toury (France)
B D Lenz (USA)
Andres Roots (Estonia)
Tipitina
Alan Barnes Quartet
Hit Parade Heroes
The Shufflepack
Rip Roaring Success
Jump, Jive & Wail
James Oliver Band
Django Chutney
The Too Hot Trio
Birmingham Big Band
Hot Club of Halifax
Carley’s Wreck & Ruin
Sheila Waterfield
Suzi Woods
Roy Forbes
Hannah Brine
CBSO - Mizo Hazama
On Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival Eve (Thursday 23rd July) we will be partnering with the CBSO to welcome multi-Grammy-nominated composer, Miho Hazama, to the home of the CBSO for an electrifying evening of jazz. Hazama joins forces with an ensemble of CBSO musicians and a stellar band, starring saxophonist and friend of the CBSO, Soweto Kinch, alongside Tom Farmer, Sharne Forbes and Ivo Neame. From Hazama’s original compositions to the works of jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Thelonious Monk, this performance takes audiences on a thrilling journey through jazz - past and present.
8:00pm at the CBSO Centre, 23rd July 2026. Tickets available below:
Get Your Tickets Here
ttps://cbso.co.uk/events/birmingham-jazz-blues-festival-miho-hazama-at-the-cbso-centre
A New Way To Support The Festival
And just when you thought that this good news week couldn’t get any better, we are delighted to share that we are now registered with easyfundraiser.co.uk, allowing donations to be made to the festival at no cost to you WHATSOEVER!
How does it work?
Whenever you buy from companies that are partnered with EasyFundraiser (e.g., amazon, ebay, royal mail, Tesco online), the company will make a small donation to the festival - a bit like a credit card that offers cashback!
These costs are in no way passed on to the customer, so by signing up you can make FREE donations to the festival!
(P.S. We will soon be opening our usual crowdfunding campaign alongside this free donation campaign - so stay tuned!)
To sign up, simply click on the button below.
Click Here to Start Raising Free Donations today!
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/birmingham-jazz-and-blues-festival-cic/