Cork Jazz Festival hitting the high notes in Cork for 47 years

The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2025 is in full swing, with both locals and visitors enjoying one of the biggest weekends on the Cork cultural calendar.

In fact, the population of Cork will virtually double as 100,000 jazz revellers flock to the city for Ireland’s oldest single-site music festival, which is now worth almost €1m per hour to the greater Cork economy during its five-day run.

Ireland’s largest city-based music festival is now in its 47th edition, and over the five days, from Thursday through to Bank Holiday Monday, the festival will feature more than 500 musicians across 100 events, performing in almost 80 venues.

New names added to the line-up this year include Chip Wickham, Monjola, Summer Pearl, Melina Malone, Celaviedemai, F3miii, Chameleon, FyaRed, JarJarJr and Ahmed, and With Love.

Other artists taking part in this year’s event include Nubya Garcia and Adrian Younge Orchestra; Tolü Makay, Sienna Spiro, Orchestra Baobab, and Annie and The Caldwells.

And was there ever a more perfectly named performer to play Cork than Lee Fields and The Expressions?

The very first Cork Jazz Festival began on Friday, October 27, 1978, and was the brainchild of Jim Mountjoy, who was then the marketing manager of the Metropole Hotel.

He first had the idea for a mini-festival in 1978 when the cancellation of a bridge event left the Metropole with rooms to fill on the newly-created October bank holiday weekend, which had been introduced the previous year by labour minister Michael O’Leary.

The hotel already had a regular jazz session, featuring talents such as Harry Connolly, and so, with the help of local jazz lovers, including Pearse Harvey and Ray Fitzgerald, the first fledgling Cork Jazz Festival was born.

Tobacco and cigarette manufacturer John Player was the initial sponsor of the festival, which, from the outset, attracted thousands of jazz fans.

The Evening Echo of Saturday, October 28, 1978, reported on the opening night: “The John Player Jazz International, the first of its kind to be staged in this country, got a tumultuous send-off last night at the Metropole Hotel where a capacity audience were treated to a memorable concert of top-rate jazz.

“The official opening was performed by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Brian Sloane, who welcomed the many visitors and artistes from Britain and America who will be performing over the four-day festival.”

The line-up for that first year included Kenny Ball and the Jazzmen, George Melly and the John Chilton Feetwarmers, the Ronnie Scott Quintet with Louis Stewart, Annie Ross, the Harry South Trio, and Monty Sunshine.

The following year, we reported on the Friday of the bank holiday weekend that “with just a few hours left before we swing into the greatest jazz show ever staged in this country, tickets for practically all events of the John Player Jazz International are running out fast”. Featured artists at that second jazz festival included the Terry Lightfoot Jazz Band, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis and the Charlie Byrd Trio, Memphis Slim, Alexis Korner, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Oscar Peterson.

In 1981, Guinness became the festival’s major sponsor — a collaboration that has continued to this day.

Since the 1990s, average annual festival visitor numbers have exceeded 40,000, with people travelling from far and wide to experience the festival.

Earlier this week, Cork Airport said it was preparing to welcome more than 62,000 passengers over the October bank holiday weekend, with overall passenger traffic 12% higher than the same period last year.

As soon as passengers touch down at Cork Airport this weekend, they will be treated to live performances in the airport terminal as part of the festival’s ‘Big Fringe’ — with music from the Chaupiques Brass Band, TBL8 Brass Band, and local ensemble, Rebel Brass.

Over the years, Cork has played host to innumerable music legends, among them Dizzy Gillespie, Ronnie Scott, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, Chick Corea, George Shearing, Buddy Rich, Jan Garbarek, and Joshua Redman.

Jim Mountjoy, the father of the Cork Jazz Festival, passed away in February of this year. Taoiseach Micheál Martin led the tributes, saying: “Jim leaves a wonderful, happy legacy in music, entertainment, and the development of Cork as a festival city. My thoughts are with his family at this time.”

Guinness Cork Jazz Festival chairwoman Fiona Collins offered her sympathies on behalf of the committee, and Aaron Mansworth, then Cork Business Association president, and managing director of Trigon Hotels, said all at the Metropole remembered a “visionary” who had left behind a remarkable legacy.

“His passion, creativity, and love for music shaped an event that has become part of Cork’s cultural heartbeat.

“Thank you, Jim, for your vision and enduring contribution to our city. Your music will live on forever in every note played at the Cork Jazz Festival.”