Name: 8th Annual Labor Day Jazz Festival 2025
Start: 2025-08-28T21:00:00+05:30
End: 2025-08-28T22:00:00+05:30
Location: Millennium Park

The oldest of Chicago’s free lakefront music festivals boasts an incredibly diverse lineup which includes free neighborhood concerts leading up to the main show at Millennium Park and additional programming throughout the city over Labor Day weekend.
Chicago Jazz Festival has been part of the city’s free summer music festival lineup for more than 40 years. The range of artists comprising the Chicago Jazz Festival lineup runs the gamut from jazz legends to influential modern masters and crucial new voices in the genre’s continuing evolution.
Chicago Jazz Festival Lineup:
Here’s the list of artists performing:
August 28:
Esperanza Spalding
Henry Johnson
August 29:
Monty Alexander
Patricia Barber
August 30:
Gary Bartz & NTU Troop
Kermit Ruffins
August 31:
Eliades Ochoa
Ari Brown Quintet
Other artists:
Ernest Dawkins
Sarah Marie Young
Ava Logan
G. Thomas Allen
Natalie Scharf Quintet featuring Paul Asaro
Silvia Manrique & Marcel Bonfim
FAQs
1) Where is the Chicago Jazz Festival?
The Chicago Jazz Festival is held at lakefront Millennium Park. There will also be performances that take place at the Chicago Cultural Center and the Harris Theatre Rooftop.
2) Is Chicago Jazz Festival free?
The Chicago Jazz Festival is free and open to the public. All performances at Millennium Park are free to attend throughout the weekend along with and additional programming across the city over Labor Day weekend.
3) What is Chicago-style jazz?
During the Great Migration African Americans flocked to Chicago from the South bringing age-old jazz and blues traditions with them. The genre became popular in small clubs on the city’s south side — soon Chicago was attracting legendary musicians like King Oliver Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong.
Over time the city’s musicians developed their own distinct twist on the genre. Chicago-style jazz is a combo of Mississippi Delta and New Orleans “Dixieland” style but with heavy bass and guitar longer solos and fast tempos.