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 (floating hotel on the Sacramento River), to the highly improbable Freeway Gardens— a parking lot under Interstate 5. Music is performed in 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 Sac, 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: Laughs Unlimited (front & back rooms), the Courtyard D'Oro (Firehouse Alley), and Crawdad's River Cantina Stage (2nd & J St. at Pony Express). Sunday morning at the Crawdad's stage: live radio broadcast by The Wolf (101.9).

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Convention Center Area

Best bet for longtime fans who want to hear lots of jazz concentrated in a few venues. The Convention Center Area does not include the Convention Center but does include venues in the sophisticated ballrooms inside two luxury hotels: the Hyatt Regency and the Sheraton Grand, just two blocks apart. In the hotel ballrooms, the festival managers have installed dance floors to keep the dancers happy and on their feet. For the less mobile, these hotel venues offer comfort and air-conditioning, and a good variety of JAZZ and ragtime. This Midtown area also 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.

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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 2012 Festival! Website is funded in part by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC)

The Festival recommends that you visit and support all the fine shops and restaurants in Old Sac all year round.