Red Sea Jazz Festival

The Red Sea Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival held in the port and resort city of Eilat, Israel. The festival lasts for four days, each day featuring about ten concerts, several workshops with guest artists, and jam sessions.

The first Red Sea Jazz Festival took place in 1987. It was initiated by Dan Gottfried, an Israeli jazz pianist and music educator who served as the festival’s artistic director for over two decades before retiring in 2008. During Gottfried’s tenure, the Read Sea Jazz Festival showcased over 1,500 world-renowned jazz artists. His vision helped make the festival one of the world’s leading jazz events.

Following Gottfried’s retirement, Israeli jazz bassist, composer, singer and arranger Avishai Cohen became the new artistic director. Under Cohen’s direction, the festival began to feature more emerging performers and shifted its focus towards showcasing young talent and original compositions. However, established jazz artists and jazz standards remained an important part of the festival program. Cohen was succeeded by Israeli jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger Eli Degibri in 2011. As of 2017, the artistic director of the festival is Dubi Lenz, a veteran radio personality and music expert.

The line-up of the Red Sea Jazz Festival is a well-balanced mix of performances by international jazz stars and local musicians. The organizers put a special emphasis on collaborative projects and experimental productions. Some of the special collaborations exclusive to the festival have included John Scofield and Charlie Haden, John Abercrombie and Miroslav Vitous, Mark Egan and Randy Brecker.

The Read Sea Jazz Festival is held during the last week of August. It attracts around 70,000 visitors every year, with an average attendance of 2,500 per concert. All performances take place outdoors at the Eilat port. The program also features workshops that are held at a nearby hotel.

The festival is a non-profit event supported by the Municipality of Eilat, the Ministry of Culture and Sport of Israel, the Ministry of Tourism of Israel, the Eilat Hotel Association, and various corporate sponsors. Since 2010, Read Sea Jazz has also hosted the Winter Read Sea Jazz Festival that takes place every January.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the festival, its organizers held the Israeli Jazz Convention for artists and other music industry professionals. Its program included panel discussions, lectures and workshops.