Fillmore Jazz Festival canceled this year

By CYNTHIA TRAINA

The Fillmore Jazz Festival, traditionally held over the Fourth of July weekend, has been canceled for 2025. Tim Omi, president of the sponsoring Fillmore Merchants Association, announced the cancellation tonight at a neighborhood meeting.

The festival, which has attracted more than 100,000 attendees annually to what was billed as the largest free jazz festival in the west, was launched in 1983 to celebrate Fillmore Street’s heritage as a jazz mecca. It celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2024. However, after shutting down during the pandemic and operating at a loss for the past two years, organizers say it is not financially feasible to stage the event this year. The deadline for the permit application is this Friday, April 4. This year’s festival would have been held on July 5 and 6.

Merchant leaders say they are actively seeking new sources of funding to bring the festival back in future years. They reported that the annual event costs approximately $400,000 to produce each year. Instead, Patti Mangan, executive director of the association, said: “We will try to have live jazz along Fillmore Street that weekend, if we can find the funding.”

FROM THE ORGANIZERS: “It breaks our hearts“