Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2026

Now a fixture of Ireland's autumn calendar, the Cork Jazz Festival began after a cancelled bridge tournament left the Metropole Hotel with empty rooms over a new bank holiday weekend. Hotel marketing manager Jim Mountjoy and jazz musician Harry Connolly hit on music as the answer, and the first edition opened with Ronnie Scott. Guinness soon became principal sponsor, and the event grew into the country's biggest jazz gathering, drawing hundreds of musicians and thousands of visitors.

The festival spreads across the city rather than sticking to one stage. The Guinness Music Trail connects more than 70 venues in Cork City, Douglas and Kinsale, with styles running from ska and swing to jazz and brass. A Blue Note Records anniversary exhibition has also been part of the mix, and the programme has ranged from jazz legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie to contemporary names such as GoGo Penguin and Robert Glasper, with occasional non-jazz headliners along the way.