Skip to main content

Monterey Jazz Festival tickets

Jazz fans, you have a rare opportunity, but you need to act quickly. The 51st Monterey Jazz Festival, sponsored by Verizon, tickets are on sale now. The festival takes place September 19-21st this year, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Grounds tickets to view any of the artists appearing at the 7 festival grounds venues are available for all three days, but that’s not unusual for mid-July. The opportunity is tickets for the arena shows are still available. That is very unusual; six weeks after the tickets went on sale to the public.

Festival subscriber (anyone who purchased arena tickets last year) ticket sales open each year around March 30th. They have until May 31st to renew or upgrade their arena packages. Missing the deadline by just a day means losing your seats, and having to start over again in the back of the arena, in the bleacher seats. Normally, the small pool of available arena seats is gone by late June.


Prime arena package seats are extraordinarily valuable. They are hotly contested settlement items in divorce cases, and frequently show up in wills and trusts. No, I’m not joking. Each year, you have the opportunity to upgrade your seats, but only if someone else has vacated theirs. We’ve been very lucky, and have progressed to a great set of seats, along the side of the arena, with a great view of the stage.


With a grounds package, you have access to all the festival grounds venues. The shows are continuous in the grounds venues from 6:00pm – 11:30pm Friday, Noon to 11:30pm Saturday, and Noon to 11:00pm on Sunday. There is no in-and-out access to the festival grounds. If you leave, you cannot come back in without another ticket. However, once on the grounds, there is more than enough activities, food, beverages, and shopping, to keep you going all day long.


The arena packages also allow access to all the grounds venues. The added plus is access to the arena programs. The shows on the Jimmy Lyons Stage in the arena feature the headliners of the festival. Many of these artists also play sets in the grounds venues. The package consists of tickets for 5 shows: Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon, and Sunday evening. The biggest hidden advantage is, since you have separate tickets for each show, you can actually leave the grounds during the break between the afternoon, and evening shows.


The lineup for this year is outstanding. Last year’s 50th lineup was a celebration of 50 years of phenomenal performances. Several artists who performed at the very first MJF were on hand for the event. This year’s lineup is intent on launching the next 50 years in fine fashion. Bassist Christian McBride, this year’s artist-in-residence, is featured in a number of different ensembles. Headliners include Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Christian McBride, Nancy Wilson, Cassandra Wilson, and many more. Act quickly to be a part of the next 50 years of one-of-a-kind performances. For details go to: www.montereyjazzfestival.com.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jazz 500 - An Overdue Personal Project

Hello again. First, I must apologize for being away for so long. I wish I had more of an excuse to give you, but the fact is, sometimes life just gets in the way. In any case, I’m back just in time for the heart of the festival season. Next up for me is the Monterey Jazz Festival in September. We have our tickets in hand, and can’t wait for this, the 61st edition, of the longest continuously running jazz festival in the world. In the meantime, if you’ve followed my Instagram feed in the past, you may have noticed quite a bit more activity than normal. I usually post images live from the festival, and hope to be doing that again this year. In addition, I’ve started a series I’m referring to as Jazz 500 (#jazz500). My Jazz Photojournalism adventure began in 1995. A year later, I covered my first Monterey Jazz Festival. Since then, I’ve covered it every year except 1997 and 1998. As you can imagine, after 20 years of photographing some of the greatest legends of the musi

Faces of Jazz: Nancy Wilson, 2008 Monterey Jazz Festival

The afternoon "Conversation" segments of the Monterey Jazz Festival are a hidden gem in the festival's weekend program. The audience takes a rare, personal look at an artist as they reflect on various aspects and moments of their storied careers. This image was captured in one of those sessions with Nancy Wilson. Later that evening, Ms. Wilson would take the stage for the first time since the passing of her husband of 35 years, just weeks prior. She noted that how performing would be very different now. "Whenever U was onstage," she explained, "...no matter where I was in the world, I was always singing to him." She went on to say her signature song "Guess Who I Saw Today" had absolutely nothing to do with the Reverend Wiley Burton.  All ticket options for the 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival are available now. Choose from single day grounds tickets to full weekend subscription packages for the Arena concerts. Go to the Monterey Jazz Fe

Faces of Jazz: Charnett Moffett - 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival

Charnett Moffett has had a connection to the elite artists in jazz for a very long time. His father, Charles, was a drummer for Ornette Coleman in the 1960s, so he's more than accustomed to being around the legends of jazz. This year, Saturday evening's performances on the Garden Stage featured the artists of the  Moté ma  Records label. Moffett's fourth CD on Moté ma , Spirit of Sound, was released on July 9th. Together with label founder Jana Herzen, Moffett hosted a showcase of  Moté ma artists, and anchored many of the ensembles on bass.