Jass Fest 2026 review

I succeeded in attending every day of the festival, getting to see mostly three shows per day, though on one occasion it was only two.

I enjoyed almost all of the performances, but there was one in particular that I hadn't prepared for and ended up missing. On June 27th I arrived early and my last show I attended was the Asesino Trio performance. I had noticed when I tried to leave the TD stage audience area that almost no one was leaving, and in fact, more people were entering, making the population density even greater.

It turns out that it was Angine de Poitrine who performed at 21h30, and that show closed the Jazz Fest grounds for there having reached a capacity of people. I did not, at the time, know who this band was or what they were doing; had I known, I would have stayed right where I was, as I was already in a good position having watched the Asesino Trio perform. I have since learned about them having watched a handful of YouTube videos and now I regret (as much as I ever regret anything, which isn't very much) not having stayed after the Trio to keep my good position to watch them AdeP play.

I found as the 10 days progressed that a ligament, likely my right hip flexor tendon, was becoming achingly sore only to a very minor but noticable degree, due to me being standing and sometimes dancing in place, for 3-5 hours per night, for 10 consecutive nights. Doing all of this in addition to going out for a 3600m run a few mornings during the festival had me aching this way.

So for next year I plan on doing both stretching and leg strength exercises in advance of the festival, and, to decrease or even eliminate any distance running during the festival to reduce the amount of irritation all of my joints experience.

Hopefully I am in a better position financially next year to buy a t-shirt and hat, or some memorabilia, and perhaps also attend perhaps one paid show.

There is Soulfest and Nuits Afrique both that are coming up soon, as well as Osheaga. The first two have free shows, the latter does have a cost, so I won't be attending this year, but maybe in a future year I would consider attending.