Sacramento Music Festival

View MAP of venues, Admission Sales locations and parking.      

Old Sacramento Area

"Old Sac" is a National Historic Landmark District and State Historic Park with world-renowned museums focusing on railroad history and the Gold Rush era. Performance sites in Old Sacramento range from the charming precincts of the refurbished Delta King riverboat (afloat on the Sacramento River), to the highly improbable Freeway Gardens— a parking lot under Interstate 5. Music is performed outside the majestic California State Railroad Museum, in canvas tents along the Sacramento River, in the foliated courtyard of the Firehouse Restaurant (and their cozy banquet room), in world-class hotel ballrooms, and even below street level in the brick-covered Round Table Pizza Parlor. They're all within the perimeter of Old Sacramento, an easy walk from venue to venue, so that visitors may sample any of the festival's lively musical styles all in one area. Outdoor venues are covered from the sun but open to fresh breezes from the Sacramento River — and perhaps even infused with the spirit of Old Sacramento's Wild West heritage, making it conducive for thousands of attendees to get down and get crazy. Even the excursion trains have music! NEW VENUES in 2012: Two rooms at Laughs Unlimited, and two rooms at the Crescent Club.

Click here to view Old Sacramento venues

Convention Center Area

The Convention Center Area includes venues in sophisticated ballrooms inside two of the luxury downtown hotels: the Hyatt Regency and the Sheraton Grand, just two blocks apart. In the hotel ballrooms, the festival managers have installed capacious dance floors so that festival-goers can satisfy their urge to trip the light fantastic. In the Convention Center Area, it is possible to sample most of the festival's many types of jazz and ragtime just by walking a block or so. This Midtown area offers many of Sacramento's most sophisticated restaurants; plus the spectacular IMAX theater just around the corner. You'll also find the California State Capitol, with expansive lawns and leafy, manicured gardens — perfect for a leisurely stroll. Weather-wise, you never know what's going to happen in May, but should Sacramento be in the middle of one of its heat waves, every hotel venue is air-conditioned.

Click here to view Convention Center Area venues

Next Generation

All of the Next Generation sites are FREE of charge to the general public. There are three youth band sites: 1) Delta King Dock alongside the historic Delta King Riverboat, 2) Family Stage on a grassy ampitheater facing the California State Railroad Museum, and 3) Round Table Pizza, downstairs and below street level. This is where tomorrow's jazz musicians develop their talents. The festival annually presents over a dozen groups of young people (high school age and younger) as a way of fulfilling the STJS mission to preserve classic American jazz and develop a new generation of musicians to play it.

Click here to view venues for the Next Generation

Big thanks to all of our sponsors for the 2011 Festival! Website is funded in part by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC)

The Festival recommends these Old Sac establishments: The Firehouse, Golden Eagle Rm., Round Table Pizza, Ten 22, Courtyard D'Oro, Crescent Club, Laughs Unlmtd., Evangeline's, Stage Nine.