Havana International Jazz Festival 2025

It’s that time of year when the annual International Jazz Plaza Festival fills theatres, cultural haunts, plazas and garden patios across Cuba. Mark your calendars for January 25^th to February 2^nd, 2025.

This year the festival takes over eight venues in Havana , venues in Santa Clara in central Cuba for the first time, and top spots in Santiago De Cuba, the island’s second city in the east of the island. The programme – marking the 40^th anniversary of the festival – has been created by artistic director Roberto Fonseca, an internationally renowned piano player.

This year’s Festival de Jazz Plaza will see more than 200 concerts performed – of jazz, but this year, rumba, son, danzón and ballet are celebrated, too.

In Havana, look forward to the opening concert at the National Theatre – “Homage to the 80^th Anniversary of Frank Fernández” on the 26th; Fernández, born in eastern Cuba, is an accomplished pianist.

Cuban jazz pianist Harold López-Nussa comes from a talented family of Cuban musicians. They’ll play a concert as a family on Saturday 1^st Feb. Roberto Fonseca will play ‘Homage to Ibrahim Ferrer’ at the National Theatre on February 2nd, in honour of the famous Buena Vista Social Club singer who popularised songs such as the boleros Silencio and Cómo fue back in 1997 with the inspiration of Wim Wenders.

Other Havana highlights include a concert by Cuban jazz pianist Ernán López-Nussa, a Homage to the Tres Cubano by tres specialist Pancho Amat, percussion and piano duo Hermanos Abreu, and Ruly Herrera y Real Project with its Homenaje al Gesi.

Don’t miss Drums Havana with Rodney Barreto and Olivier Valdés at the National Theatre (after the show, head for a burger at the cool fast-food joint Perro Swing that Valdés co-owns in the Vedado neighbourhood), the famous long-standing rousing rumba group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas alfresco at the Mella Theatre Gardens on Línea Street, accomplished pianist Ernesto Oliva at the intimate performance space inside the Museum of Fine Arts in Old Havana, the John Hanrahan Quartet from Chicago, and the talented Cuban-born pianist and composer Dayramir González.

At Karl Marx Theatre, children’s theatre group La Colmenita (Little Beehive) will perform a Homage to Irakere (a Cuban band founded by pianist Chucho Valdés), and at the Casa de Cultura, stellar timba talent Havana D’Primera plans to shake up the night on the 2^nd.

Staying in Santa Clara? Swing by the Caridad Theatre on the city’s main square, the wonderful cultural space El Mejunje and La Luna Naranja cultural space. Look out for Santa Clara’s Trovuntivitis, Luis Barbería and Figaro’s Jazz, and Roberto Fonseca who will play the piano at the theatre. At the town’s main square Leoncio Vidal Park, listen to Septeto Santiaguero on Feburary 1^st.

Down in Santiago de Cuba, events kick off at the Heredia Theatre with a concert by Stars of Buena Vista. At the Iris Jazz Club, on Plaza de Marte, don’t miss Alejandro Falcón and percussionist Ruy López-Nussa. Roberto Fonseca will also play alfresco in Parque Dolores on January 29^th; and on Plaza de Martes on February 1^st, listen to a concert commemorating 140 years of the Hermanos Avilés orchestra.