About the Festival

For ten days each summer, the city of Saskatoon bursts into song as the SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival plays host to hundreds of world class artists. Over 70,000 hungry music fans devour the sounds of jazz, blues, funk, pop, and world music each year, with a program that spans as many genres as it does continents.

The first Festival took place in Saskatoon during the summer of 1987. Today, twenty-five years later, it has become the second largest festival of its kind in Western Canada.

About the organization
The Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, Inc. (SJF) was incorporated in 1992 and is owned by the Saskatoon Jazz Society. The mandate of SJF is to stage an artistically significant annual Festival of jazz and related music. SJF is a nonprofit organization and registered charity.

SJF is governed by a board of directors and employs a permanent staff of three. Over two hundred volunteers are recruited each year for the ten days of the Festival.

Mission
The Saskatchewan Jazz Festival Inc. is an international jazz festival that fosters, promotes and presents jazz music in its diverse forms to the people of Saskatchewan.  The festival provides opportunities for the professional development of Saskatchewan musicians and a variety of educational experiences for the people of Saskatchewan.

Vision
That Saskatchewan people enjoy opportunities to be involved with jazz in a festival of music that is recognized internationally because of its high quality performances to capacity audiences, financial self-sufficiency, sense of community ownership and cultural impact.

Board of Directors
Louis Christ – Chair
Bob Eaton – Vice Chair
Lyle Bolen – Past Chair
Rick Peddle – Treasurer
Irene Seiferling
Heather Griffith
Michael Bischoff
Marcus Storey

Photo: Sonny Rollins, 2009 SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival.