Atlanta Jazz Festival returns to Piedmont Park May 23-25 with Kamasi Washington, The Roots headlining
Free Memorial Day weekend festival marks 49th edition in Midtown Atlanta
The Atlanta Jazz Festival will return to Piedmont Park over Memorial Day weekend, running Saturday, May 23 through Monday, May 25, 2026. Organizers have set daily festival hours from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., with stage performances scheduled between 1 p.m. and 11 p.m. each day. Admission is free and open to the public.
The 2026 edition is billed as the festival’s 49th annual staging and is produced by the City of Atlanta’s Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. The outdoor weekend program is part of a broader, citywide calendar that places jazz events across metro Atlanta during May, culminating at Piedmont Park.
Performance schedule and headliners
The three-day lineup combines nationally known artists with regional and local acts, with nightly closing sets at 9 p.m. The festival schedule lists the following performance times:
Saturday, May 23: Buddy Red (1 p.m.), aja monet (3 p.m.), Nate Smith (5 p.m.), Christian McBride & Ursa Major (7 p.m.), Kamasi Washington (9 p.m.)
Sunday, May 24: Cleveland P. Jones (1 p.m.), Myron McKinley Trio (3 p.m.), Donnie – The Colored Section (5 p.m.), Esperanza Spalding (7 p.m.), The Roots (9 p.m.)
Monday, May 25: Cody Matlock (1 p.m.), Nicole Zuraitis (3 p.m.), Destin Conrad (5 p.m.), Butcher Brown (7 p.m.), PJ Morton (9 p.m.)
What attendees can expect on-site
Alongside the main stages, the festival plan includes family and vendor areas intended to keep visitors on site throughout the day. Organizers are again planning a Publix KidZone with activities for children, plus food vendors and a marketplace section with retail booths.
Food options are expected to range across multiple cuisines, and vendor areas are set to include art, apparel, jewelry, and festival merchandise. As with many large park events, the mix of programming reflects the festival’s dual role as both a music showcase and a public gathering that draws residents and visitors into Midtown during a high-traffic holiday weekend.
Context: a long-running city cultural event
Now nearing five decades, the Atlanta Jazz Festival has become one of the city’s signature public cultural events and is widely described as among the nation’s largest free jazz festivals. The Memorial Day weekend schedule has served as a seasonal anchor for Atlanta’s summer festival calendar, while the monthlong slate of affiliated jazz programming extends the event’s footprint beyond Piedmont Park into venues across the metro area.
Festival performances are scheduled from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with gates and park activity areas operating earlier in the day.
Organizers have positioned the 2026 lineup around a mix of styles within jazz and adjacent genres, with each day structured in two-hour blocks leading into evening headline sets.