Detail of the Jazz Plaza 2025 Festival poster, by Zaida del Río. Jazz Plaza 2025 International Festival (+ Billboard)
From January 26 to February 2, the Jazz Plaza International Festival will celebrate four decades of history. This year, the event's program stands out for its diversity and scope, with more than 400 artists from 20 countries and a strong presence of figures from the United States, Italy and Colombia.
In addition to its usual venues in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the festival will arrive for the first time in Santa Clara, consolidating itself as one of the most important gatherings of the genre in the region. International artists such as Arturo O'Farrill, Danielle Ponder and Antonio Sánchez López, among others, will be featured, while Pedrito Martínez and Harold López-Nussa will head the Cuban representation.
The commemorative edition will include tributes such as the inaugural show dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Irakere, by La Colmenita, and a special concert in honor of Frank Fernandez's 80-year career. There will also be a space for cinema, with activities celebrating the 65th anniversary of ICAIC, and the return of the Leonardo Acosta In Memoriam International Colloquium, a theoretical forum that complements the concerts with master classes and debates.
With nearly 15 stages in Havana -including the return of the Karl Marx Theater and the incorporation of the National Museum of Music- and a program that ranges from screenings to record releases, Jazz Plaza 2025 reaffirms itself as a space for cultural exchange and the enjoyment of jazz in all its forms.
