Red Sea Jazz Festival

The Red Sea Jazz Festival is a jazz festival held annually in Eilat, Israel.

The Red Sea Jazz Festival was first held in 1987. It is a four-day-long event featuring 9-10 concerts per evening, 6 workshops with guest artists and nightly jam sessions. All performances are held outdoors at the Eilat port. The workshops take place at a nearby hotel.

The festival offers a combination of performances by international jazz artists and local talent. It also provides a venue for collaborative efforts, with special productions exclusive to the festival. Some of these special productions have included Randy Brecker & Mark Egan, The Jazz Beatles, Miroslav Vitous & John Abercrombie, and Charlie Haden & John Scofield.

The festival draws audiences of 70,000, with an average of 2,500 people per concert. It is run as a non-profit organization and enjoys the support of the Municipality of Eilat, the Ministries of Culture and Tourism, the Eilat Hotel Association and various business sponsors.

In 2008, Israeli jazz bassist Avishai Cohen was named artistic director, replacing Dan Gottfried, who initiated the festival and served as artistic director for 22 years.[1] During his tenure Gottfried has showcased over 1500 world-famous Jazz artists and established the reputation of the festival as one of the leading Jazz events worldwide. Under Cohen's direction in 2009, the festival showcased young talent and original compositions along with world-renowned jazz artists.[2]

The festival is held in the last week of August.

A 3-day Winter Jazz Festival, held on the third weekend in January, was initiated in 2010.