31 August 2026
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Ireland’s biggest city-based music festival returns to Cork this October Bank Holiday Weekend, with five days of music spanning jazz, soul, funk, R&B, Afrobeat and electronic sounds.
The countdown to one of the biggest weekends in Cork’s cultural calendar is under way, with the full programme for the 2026 Guinness Cork Jazz Festival set to be unveiled early September.
Taking place from 22–26 October 2026, the festival will once again transform Cork into a city-wide stage, bringing together jazz greats, global innovators and some of Ireland’s most exciting emerging artists.
More than 500 musicians will perform across 100 events in nearly 80 venues, creating a programme that reaches well beyond any narrow definition of jazz. Alongside traditional and contemporary jazz, this year’s festival will explore the music, scenes and artists that jazz has influenced and inspired – from soul, funk and R&B to Afrobeat and electronic music.
It is this breadth that has become central to the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival experience: a weekend where established jazz traditions sit comfortably alongside new sounds, unexpected collaborations and artists pushing music in fresh directions.
Across the five-day festival, audiences can expect major ticketed performances in some of Cork’s best-known venues, alongside the free Guinness Music Trail, bringing live music into pubs, bars and spaces throughout the city. The festival will spill onto the streets too, with surprise pop-up performances and brass bands adding to the atmosphere through The Big Fringe.
And the festival’s reach extends beyond Cork city, with events and activity in surrounding areas including Douglas and Kinsale, reinforcing its role as a major cultural draw for audiences from across Ireland and overseas.
With its combination of world-class musicians, global sounds, Irish talent and the unmistakable energy of Cork over the October Bank Holiday Weekend, the 2026 Guinness Cork Jazz Festival is set to turn the city into one giant musical meeting place.
The full 2026 programme will be available at guinnesscorkjazz.com from early September.
The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival takes place from 22–26 October 2026. The festival is organised by Guinness and Diageo, and supported by Fáilte Ireland, Cork City Council and Cork Airport.
ENDS