Winter Park Jazz Festival Tickets

Great line up, the Southern Gentlemen were terrific along with Eric Darius and the Summer Horns. Lots of good energy and a great venue.

I think the music played in between sets could be improved, we go to hear some funky jazz, so play some funky music. I appreciate the shows starting on time. I really miss the old location on the hill, wish we could go back. Why didn't the mayor's wife (Linda Louise Lee) perform? Wonderful work, Becky and crew!

Jazz Fest was amazing this year. The line up was really awesome and all the performances were amazing! The weather was also pretty awesome. Im glad that they do not have assigned seating in VIP anymore. I would highly recommend this to event to anyone who loves or even just likes jazz. you will have a good time.

Fabulous event! Great day of jazz. Loved Dotsero and Kool and the Gang

I enjoyed the weekend getaway in Winter Park and, for the music is always enjoyable; however, why do they keep including performances by non-jazz artists? Kool and the Gang and Music (?) Soul Child were both very good at what they do, but it's hardly what I would consider Jazz. There are plenty of good JAZZ artists who could fill a two day event.

southern gentlemen performance was better than expected, Eric Darrius was outstanding as usual, summer horns where awesome. i was a little disappointed in kool & the gang and music soul child. however the event was a blast as it normally is. and becky taylor was awesome as the mc.

Almost, but not quite enough to make me come back next year. The Winter Park Jazz Festival has changed from Jazz focus, to whichever artists are available on this date. That said, Mint Condition had no business being on this stage. They are neither Jazz nor are they performing anything decipherable by anyone older than twenty. Adding insult to injury, the overall volume was once again cranked-up to the maximum chest-pounding, ear-deafening level throughout their set. The bass player (if you can call him that) knew only how to manipulate the lowest 5th string on any noise segment the group presented. As I recall, Mint came on after a Monsoon that eliminated Eric Darius time slot. In this case, I wish the rainstorm had delayed and eliminated Mint Condition instead. The highlights of the day were the opening and closing acts. Hazel Miller opened in her lovely traditional fashion. No matter how many times her band members change, Hazel continues to perform beautifully. She will remain a respected artist for as long as she stays true to the music. Finally, the closing act was the biggest and best performance of the entire two-day festival. David Sanborn and Brian Culbertson are consummate Jazz musicians that simply will remain on the top forever. Talent pours out of these two prodigies in fantastic quantities throughout their performances. They were an absolute delight to view and listen to. It is always amazing to see Brian go back and forth between spectacular keyboard and trombone performances. And, to see him play the keyboard backwards (back to the audience) equally well as when behind the keyboard. David Sanborn's wonderful compositions and saxaphone playing stir the soul every time. Both artists and their backup instrumentalists sounded wonderful. But, that was because they brought their own sound engineer with them to run the master audio mixer. Proof once again that the other groups sounded worse because of the incompetence of the regular Winter Park audio board idiots. Please WP, hire some real professionals.

This will be the last time I attend this festival. I will miss it very much. But, they have totally lost their focus on Jazz. Today was 1/2 Jazz (sort of) and 1/2 Rhythm & Blues artists. Dotsero opened and played the same stuff they always play, year after year. Most of it is just not worth repeating endlessly. But, it was basically Jazz. Joe Louis Walker's Big Band was by definition Rhythm and Blues. They were extremely talented for the most part, and enjoyable. But, not Jazz. Summer of Soul with Jonathan Butler was pretty good. I have several of his albums, and like his music. But, stressful circumstances made him cut his performance short and hand it off to Warren Hill, who played Edgar Winter's Frankenstein. Please Warren, cut it out. You behave like the Alice Cooper of Jazz. Overall disappointing. Then the final ear-splitting abomination of the day was Charlie Wilson. Not Jazz at all. Instead it was pounding-pounding-pounding deafening screaming exaggerated over-produced nonsense, decorated with former strippers in various costumes prancing across the stage while Charlie emulated sexual motions toward them and the audience. ENOUGH!! Not Jazz. Not even Music. Just a grand-scale headache. Worsening the experience was the incompetence of the Audio board operators, who either left individual microphones or instruments turned-off before the performance, or had the master volume turned-up so loud you could watch your own shirt vibrate. I'm convinced these morons have no idea how to mix music channels to save their lives.

We had our friends come to join us at the Park City Jazz Festival from Denver a couple of years ago. They loved it. We came to the Winter Park Jazz Festival to join them this year. It is not a Jazz Festival. Much more R & B. False name and advertising. Big disappointment. Why can't they be truthful in their advertising? I know the answer, money. Can't be truthful and therefore be greedy $$$.

My sweetheart (my wife), and I both enjoyed Brian and David. It rained "cat and dogs" prior to their performance but it did not hamper anything. We did not leave for a flood of rain. In fact we would have stayed during a Hurricane if necessary. We drove for three hours to get to the event. It did not matter. In fact if Brian or David ever return to the Colorado we will drive how ever long to go see them.

This was my first year attending this event and it was fantastic! Next year going to stay up there for the whole weekend. What a line-up; even the downpour we had on Sunday didn't stop the event staff from cleanning up the stage, resetting everything and continuing the show. Very impressed with how this was coordinated and executed. Highly recommend to anyone who loves great jazz music and cool mountain air.

There were still too many seats in the Gold area - but they removed some of the seats which equaled increased comfort and better safety. The band "Mint Condition" set up too quickly and needed to tune their guitars and get the sound done properly...

Hideaway Park is an excellent venue. Outstanding atmosphere and sound quality. They did a great job of recovering from the lightning storm and deluge. Having said that, it would be wonderful if they would invite more artists who actually play jazz. Charlie Wilson and Mint Condition qualify as jazz only under the most generous of definitions. On the other hand, Dotsero, Summer of Soul, David Sanborn and Brian Culbertson were just what was needed to satisfy the jazz enthusiast. Too bad they cut Eric Darrius' set instead of Mint Condition's as a result of the weather delay.

Although the weather didn't want to cooperate, a great time was had by all!

Great venue, great line-up and great location. Could have used more than 4 volunteer staff checking bags and ticketing. Had to endure a long wait both days to get in to the fesitval.

Issue #1: There are serious Life Safety Issues at this event. The single main entrance is also designated as the single main exit. In an emergency, you can jump fences, barricades, and run for your life, but there are no designated means of egress which are specifically designated as such. Row and aisle spacing are almost non-existent, compounding the problem. In a perceived emergency situation, hundreds of people will be trying to exit the same way that they came in...that's human nature. Trampling will occur and there will be many injuries, perhaps even deaths. The Solution: provide two, if not three, designated points of entry and exit around the perimeter of Hideaway Park. Provide adequate row and aisle spacing. Issue #2: Staffing. Police presence was sparse. Event Staff man entry points, but do nothing else but become intoxicated throughout the day. I go to the beer line, and there are the Event Staff drinking as well. The Solution: More police. Sober Event Staff. Issue #3: Our seats were directly behind the "Gold Circle" seats...row 3 of the VIP section. Those seats are also on top of a vent pipe for the city sewage system. We had the unique opportunity to smell open sewage the entire day = 8 hours. The Solution: Public Works needs to address this issue. Issue #4: Screening Upon Entry With one main point of entry for the VIP and General Public, it can take up to an hour to be screened upon entry. Screening is absolutely vital to the safety of the patrons. Additional points of screening/entry are need. See Issue #1.

Crowd was ready for this duo and they delivered! What a way to end the jazz festival. Also loved Hazel Miller - lucky to have such a great local talent.

I paid top dollar for 2 seats in gold section reserved (@$100 each). We wound up right in front of the giant speakers! We asked to move and all that was available was still way to close to the speakers. I've been coming to this festival for many years (missed last year for the 1st time). We used to be able to get seats in the reserved section and then get there early to pick them. At the very least, why would they put anyone right in front of the speakers - during the festival no one set in these 2 areas in front of speakers, even though very close to stage. So we had to move to an overflow section much farther back and of course couldn't see David Sanborn and Brian Culberson close up as I had expected to and paid for.

These guys are truly talented musicians! They are gifted beyond words. They made the whole concert worth seeing. The only downside to the day was the rain delay and Eric Darius not performing any solo acts.

I really enjoyed Saturday's show. Charlie Wilson gave us a SHOW.....