Shortly after celebrating our milestone wedding anniversary, we decided to visit Montreal in the province of Quebec as it was one of the cities we went for our honeymoon years ago.
What better time to visit Montreal than during the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal which is 46 years old in 2026, having held its inaugural edition in the summer of 1980.
Though the festival had a humble beginning as the very first festival in 1980 featured around 100 musicians (including Ray Charles and Chick Corea) and drew just 12,000 attendees, today, it hosts roughly 3,000 artists from over 30 countries across 20 different stages. In 2004, it was officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest jazz festival, attracting over 2 million attendees during its 25th anniversary.
The best thing about this jazz festival is that about two-thirds of the festival's performances are completely free to the public on open-air stages across downtown Montreal.
During the 10-day event, a major portion of Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles is completely closed to vehicle traffic, transforming into a massive pedestrian-only zone from noon until midnight.
Beyond Pure Jazz: While jazz remains its core, the festival's genre scope extends widely into blues, R&B, soul, pop, reggae, and world music, hosting headliners ranging from Miles Davis and B.B. King to Stevie Wonder and The Roots.
We were there for the jazz festival only for two days at the beginning of July. The best part I liked about the concert was seeing young people feeling confident and going up to the open stage and played their hearts out for the audiences! Way to go, young people!
The Montreal Jazz Festival was very exciting as there were so many good musicians performing all over the place and we could see many of these performances for free. It was very crowded! But everyone was behaving properly and there was no crazy stuff going on. Yes, this is Canada and people feel safe here. I thank God everyday that we are living in one of the best and safest countries in the world!
RT, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 072026
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