First staged in the summer of 1996, the annual festival has grown to feature hundreds of musicians, across 60+ free and ticketed events each year.
The festival traverses the city’s music venues and public spaces, which in 2024 include First Street, Matt & Phreds, Band on the Wall, St Ann’s Church, Band on the Wall, The Stoller Hall, The Carlton Club and Forsyths.
New and original work is championed, and regional, national and international artists celebrated through our performances, commissions and premieres.
Emerging and established artists are supported year round through mjf’s talent development programmes that have helped launched the careers of a host of artists.
Throughout all of our work, we celebrate diversity, innovation and creativity.
The mjf team:
The mjf board:
mjf is an Arts Council England NPO, Manchester City Council Signature Event, part of the GMCA Culture Fund portfolio, and a PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner. We are a Keychange signatory, maintaining 50/50 or greater gender balance in our teams and programming, and a Founder Member of Black Lives in Music.
We are also a member of the Europe Jazz Network and a founder member of the Jazz Promotion Network.
mjf is honoured to remain the only UK recipient of the EJN Award for Adventurous Programming (2016).
