Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2023 Top Picks
The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival is back, and it’s promising to be a spectacular celebration of music, culture, and rhythm! Whether you’re a seasoned jazz enthusiast or simply looking for a fantastic musical experience, the 2023 festival lineup has something for everyone. Among the many talented acts gracing the stage, we’ve handpicked five bands that you absolutely must see.
1. Jazz Festival Club: The Metropole Hotel, Fri 27th / Sat 28th / Sun 29th of October at 7:00 pm- 2:30 am
The Metropole Hotel is known as the home of Jazz in Cork City, and will, as always have an amazing lineup of bands. Fans of swing, funk, groove, and blues will be well catered for, with an exciting mix of Irish and international acts. They offer a few different packages too where you can stay in the hotel, have a 4-course meal, and have entry into evenings of your choosing until closing at around 2.30am. This venue is the one with the most amount of ensemble Jazz in one place as it’s got a few different rooms so if you’re a hardcore jazz fan, we would recommend coming here. All events before 7pm and on the Monday are free to enter too! You can see their lineup by clicking here, and book packages on their website here.
2. Jazz Cork All-Stars: Cork Opera House, Sat 28th October – Cork Opera House, Doors 11:30 pm
Do you like Jazz but prefer a more up-tempo fusion version like a brass band, funk, or soul, or maybe even some drum and bass mixed in? Then the Cork Opera House is your best bet. For the last two festivals, Mark Murphy from Choicecuts and Mass Exodus have been exploring contemporary Jazz in Cork and this year is no different as they’ll have the finest local, national, and international jazz artists and DJs at an all-star evening on Saturday night. You can take a look at some of the acts so far on the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival website by clicking here, and book tickets by clicking here.
3. Jazz Boat Journey with Jerron Paxton: Cork Harbour Cruises, Fri 27th / Sat 28th / Sun 29th of October
If you’re looking for some all-American blues this jazz weekend and you’d like to have a unique experience outside of the city, we would recommend taking a Jazz-style harbour cruise with American blues musician Jerron Paxton as your entertainment. To give you an idea of his music, here’s what the jazz festival website had to say about him “A gifted multi-instrumentalist who specializes in traditional, pre-World War II music, Paxton plays the fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica, and piano, and his performances are filled with ballads (both sung and played), blues tunes”. If that sounds good to you, you can read the full description of the event by clicking here, and book tickets on Eventbrite by clicking here.
4. The Big Fringe- All week
If you’re looking for some cultural events in the afternoons, and some music on the streets of Cork during the day, you’ll want the Big Fringe. This experience is basically about rounding up the smaller events taking place around the city that you might not have seen otherwise to help you find them and adding a spot of culture into your jazz experience. You can go to a presentation about the history of Japanese Jazz or learn how brass instruments work in the Cork City library, you can even see some Jazz on the stage of Elizabeth fort, or the top of Corks tour bus. Our favourite event here is the Jazz Jamborie on Sunday the 29th at 5pm, where all the brass bands from around the world have one final event to say goodbye to Cork and to this year’s festival in front of Cork Opera House. You can see a list of all these events on the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival website by clicking here.
5. We Got the Jazz Presents: Evolution: St. Peters Church, 27 October – 6 November
For a truly unique jazz weekend experience, you can head over to Saint Peter’s church for an exhibition entitled: We got The Jazz by The Evolution. This event is being described by the jazz festival as “An Exhibition celebrating the union of hip-hop and jazz, as part of the worldwide acknowledgement of Hip-hop’s 50th anniversary and the 45th Guinness Cork Jazz Festival”. There will be events staggered throughout the day every day from this Friday to Monday the 6th of November so if you can’t get over here during the Jazz, you’ll still have plenty of opportunity the following week. As part of this event, you can expect Exhibitions, Talks, Interviews, Workshops, DJ sets, Breakdance Jam and more. You can find more info on the Cork Jazz Festival website by clicking here.
Between the amazing ensemble of bands in the metropole to the jazz-techno fusion in the opera house we have plenty for you to do this weekend in Cork, if you need more proof that we’re the true capital of Ireland- look no further than the Cork Jazz Festival 😉
If you head out to see the Jazz this weekend, make sure and tag us in your pics @CorkEnglishCollege, or use the #CorkEnglishCollege so we can see what a great time you’re having!