Inaugural LA Jazz Festival Canceled at Last Minute

By Michael J. West I Aug. 11, 2026

Percussionist Poncho Sanchez was among the artists scheduled to perform at the now-canceled inaugural LA Jazz Festival.
(Photo: Courtesy ponchosanchez.com)

The inaugural LA Jazz Festival, originally scheduled to run Aug. 7–23 with dozens of events across Los Angeles’ vast cityscape, was canceled hours before its planned opening.

Festival founder and CEO Martin Ludlow said that the festival’s debut would instead occur in 2027, and that all ticket buyers for this month’s event would be refunded within 30 days.

The cancellation — which Ludlow attributed to “significant, unanticipated last-minute public-safety and municipal costs associated with the final permitting of the On the Beach Festival” (referring to the festival’s main event, set for Aug. 22–23 at Dockweiler Beach) — occurred in such haste that the performers scheduled to open the festival at City Hall on Aug. 7 found out with the cancellation announcement that they no longer had a gig.

“I am deeply disappointed by the manner in which the cancellation of portions of the inaugural Los Angeles Jazz Festival was handled — particularly the lack of communication with musicians who had contracted, prepared and showed up ready to perform,” Uptown New Orleans Brass Band’s Torrénce Brannon-Reese told KABC-TV in Los Angeles. (Vocalist Lalah Hathaway and saxophonist Isaiah Collier had also been scheduled to appear at the opening concert.) “I respectfully call upon the organizers of the Los Angeles Jazz Festival to publicly explain what happened, address their contractual commitments to affected artists and begin repairing the trust that has been damaged.”

However, some artists had been notified earlier this week that their portions of the festival had been postponed for budgetary and permitting reasons.

Announced in February, the festival had hoped to attract 250,000 attendees and to establish L.A. as a premier destination for jazz. Among its scheduled headliners were John Legend, Janelle Monáe, Parliament-Funkadelic featuring George Clinton, Charlie Wilson, Raphael Saadiq, Original Koffee, Terrace Martin, Poncho Sanchez, Joey Alexander and Big Freedia, in addition to the opening night artists.

“Although this decision was an extremely difficult one to reach, our commitment to the audiences and artists participating in the festival is to have a first-class experience worthy of the great legacy of Jazz and our great city,” Ludlow said.

This is the second high-profile festival debut to be scuttled within a week. On Aug. 2, the inaugural Brooklyn Jazz Festival — which was to take place Aug. 8 in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park — announced its postponement to “a later date, to be announced.” DB