The event will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre from 25 to 27 September.
This was announced at a press conference at the centre by event producer Peter Tladi of T-Musicman, a recording company based in Johannesburg.
The festival has moved from its traditional place in Newtown, Johannesburg.
The new venue allows the festival to continue its spectacular growth and also means that, for the first time, audiences will be able to buy a full festival pass to the three main stages – Dinaledi, Conga and Mbira – in line with jazz festivals around the globe, Tladi said.
“Given the exponential growth of the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, the centre allows us almost unlimited numbers. We are projecting nearly 30 000 people attending this year, and we will be taking the festival to greater heights at its new home for the next five years.
“The move to the convention centre has multiple benefits. It allows us to grow, to sell a full festival pass, as well as to improve sound, staging, security and parking. We are also no longer at the mercy of the weather. In addition, extensive corporate hospitality options will be available given the extra venue capacity,” Tladi added.
The move from Newtown to Sandton has been necessitated by the festival’s overwhelming and continuing popularity, with Newtown having reached its full capacity and unable to expand to accommodate the growing audience numbers, Tladi said.
Making their debut in the festival’s new home will be two top flight Grammy award winning artists, one of whom walked away with the award earlier this year. American jazz vocalist Gregory Porter – who has been called “the brilliant new voice of jazz” – won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album for his recording Liquid Spirit. He’ll be joined at the new look festival by fellow American and two-time Grammy winning trumpeter Roy Hargrove.
In its first year at the Sandton Convention Centre, the festival will run over four stages – The Dinaledi, Mbira, Conga, and newly-named Diphala which replaces the Bassline stage.
Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile has given his full support to the festival and said its growth means more tourism, more jobs and more money coming into the country and to Gauteng in particular.
Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau said although the festival was moving north, it was still firmly a part of the City of Johannesburg. “It was held in the CBD for 16 years and put Newtown on the entertainment map. However, it grew too large for the available infrastructure, hence the move.”
