Are you ready to get your fingers clicking, feet tapping and hips swinging to the sound of the Xàbia Jazz International Festival?

The first weekend of August is undoubtedly one of the highlights of Javea’s festival calendar.

Every year – and since 2021 absolutely free of charge – the Plaza de la Constitución rolls out the red carpet for international jazz sensations, tributes to history’s best-loved jazz crooners and swing bands that get Javea on their feet and dancing.

Also read: Javea`s Fiestas

When is the Festival Internacional Xàbia Jazz?

Xàbia Jazz – often called Javea Jazz – takes place the first weekend of August every year.

Where is the Festival Internacional Xàbia Jazz?

The Xàbia Jazz stage goes up in the Plaza de la Constitución in Javea’s old town.

What’s the highlight of the Festival Internacional Xàbia Jazz?

Each edition of the Javea Jazz festival typically has a headline act, as well as a tribute act and an act specifically for dancing, like a swing or funk band.

Javea Jazz International Festival

The Festival Internacional Xàbia Jazz (Javea Jazz International Festival) is more than a local music festival.

The annual event was designed to make Javea one of the primary destinations for jazz music on Spain’s entire Mediterranean coastline.

With help from the Javea town hall (Ajuntament de Xàbia) and the Valencian music institute (Instituto Valenciano de Música) the Xàbia Jazz festival aims to secure top talent that’s neither too pop-focused nor too experimental for beginner audiences.

The open-air festival has been a regular feature ever since August 2001 – the first edition – except for August 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions meant Javea Jazz could not be celebrated.

Some of the names to have taken to the stage include:

• Michael Brecker – American jazz saxophonist with 15 Grammy Awards to his name
• Dave Holland – English jazz double bassist who famously played with Miles Davis 
• Chucho Valdés – Afrocuban pianist with seven Grammy Awards and four Latin Grammy Awards to his name, including Best Latin Jazz Album in 2022
• Chano Dominguez – Spanish jazz pianist, who in 2020 won Spain’s prestigious Premio Nacional de las Músicas Actuales 
• Mulgrew Miller – American jazz pianist who played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and later with Art Blakey and Tony Williams 
• Stacey Kent – American jazz singer, grammy nominee and awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture
• Paolo Fresu – Italian jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player
• Terrel Stafford – American jazz trumpeter, who has played with McCoy Tyner and worked with the prestigious Juilliard School’s jazz programme

Xàbia Jazz has also seen tribute acts to the following singers and composers:

• Louis Armstrong
• Frank Sinatra
• Duke Ellington
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Fred Astaire
• Duke Pearsons
• Billie Holiday
• Amy Winehouse 

Since 2021 the Javea Jazz festival has been free of charge – and since 2022 there is no need to reserve a space. 

The Plaza de la Constitución is one of Javea old town’s main squares, where jazz lovers for three days in August can enjoy a drink or bite to eat at one the bars and browse a stall selling jazz records and merchandise.

You can find a selection of posters from past editions of Xàbia Jazz on XabiaMusica.org.