Rhodes & South Aegean International Jazz Festival 2026

"Rhodes & South Aegean International Jazz Festival" (RIJF) started as Rhodes Jazz Festival back in 2015. It became a sister festival with Bodrum Jazz Festival in Turkey in 2019 and collaborates since 2021 with Cyprus Jazz & World Music Showcase (CJWMS), since 2024 with Tomorrow’s Warriors in the UK and the Athens Jazz Festival in Technopolis and since 2026 with a group of partner festivals in Europe and the Balkans. RIJF aims to present young and upcoming artists together with accomplished international jazz musicians and engage in a creative collaboration through the democratic nature of jazz with our immediate neighbours in the Aegean and Mediterranean region, under our common title “Jazz across the water”.

RIJF is co-organised by Jazz Democracy NPO, Region of South Aegean Islands, Rhodes Municipality, and is under the auspices and support of the Greek Ministry of Culture, Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs, and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Every edition of the festival welcomes collaborations with Arts Councils, European Embassies, and International Institutions that support emerging and accomplished artists.

This year’s RIJF 2026 will coinside with the MEDMus conference. This symposium, part of the MedMus – Méditerranée(s) musicale(s): Techniques, circulations et représentations – XIXe-XXIe siècles (2022-2026) program, will examine the different outputs, performance practices and spaces, and policies of contemporary Mediterranean Jazz and improvised Mediterranean music. Athens University, Newcastle University, Université Libre de Bruxelles / FNRS and partner institutions: French School at Athens (EFA), French School of Rome (EFR), French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO), Idemec (UMR7307, CNRS/AMU), University of Ioannina.The theme of our festival for 2026 will be Mediterranean Jazz and will include groups that play in this idioms. The scholars, musicians and academics will participate in the conference in the morning and come to our concerts in the evening. The festival will be held in many different locations and will start in June 2026 with the events in Kos and Bodrum as part of our sisterhood with Bodrum Jazz Festival. We will continue with our partner festival events and will conclude at the 3rd week of October at our main festival and conference events at: the Palace of the Knights in the old town of the Greek island of Rhodes, International Writers' & Translators' Centre of Rhodes, the Acropolis of Rhodes at the Ancient Theatre. RIJF will also expand to more Dodecanese islands like Kos and Symi for educational presentations, while under the collaboration with Cyprus, we participate at the Cyprus Jazz & World Music Showcase 2025 & 2026. Within the framework of the festival, we organise concerts and educational events at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the University of the Aegean, and the Music School in Rhodes.

Over 30 inspired top international and Greek musicians, writers, artists, and scholars will participate in the 7th edition of the festival and the audience at all venues including the sister festivals is expected to rise to more than 20 thousand.