Lansing JazzFest
The festival welcomes nearly 15,000 attendees over the weekend.
History
The Lansing JazzFest began in 1995 when the Old Town Business and Art Development Association, having successfully produced OctoberFest (now the Old Town BluesFest), discovered that music festivals are an excellent way to encourage people to visit and enjoy Old Town Lansing. The local jazz radio station, 89.7 WLNZ, signed on as a founding media sponsor, and Message Makers, a local media company, became its founding business sponsor. In the festival's early days, local musicians donated their time to play at JazzFest, and volunteers from the local community pitched in to see that the 4,000-5,000 people in attendance had a good time. The Lansing JazzFest is the only mid-Michigan festival to increase consistently in attendance every year since its beginning.
A virtual show is planned in September 2020 as live shows were cancelled caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.