Syracuse Jazz Fest, which languished in recent years because of funding issues and COVID-19, is expanding this summer in downtown Syracuse. The free jazz festival grows to five days this year, with two outdoor stages and 24 indoor venues and brand new sponsors.
Jazz Fest Founder Frank Malfitano is hopeful that the festival, which, aside from recent troubles, has been a staple in Syracuse since 1983, may be on solid financial footing to keep it viable for years to come.
"I think for the first time we have a shot for long-term sustainability for this, which is the goal," Malfitano said.
There’s a new title sponsor, National Grid. Syracuse University and Visit Syracuse are sponsoring new events and Amazon is back after helping resurrect the festival last year Long time sponsors Price Chopper, as well as Onondaga County and New York State are supporting the festival, which boasts headliners Gladys Knight and keyboardist Herbie Hancock.
"The sponsors came through, the stakeholders came through. We got the big acts and it just keeps building and it just keeps growing," Malfitano said.
This follows some dark years after the festival lost long-time sponsor M&T Bank, and government funding was hard to come by. Add COVID-19 to that and Malfitano found it hard to get the festival going again, resulting in five years with no music. Amazon came through last year to get it on its feet again.
The fact that it coincides with some big-name companies moving to central New York is not a coincidence. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon pointed specifically to efforts to bring Amazon and Micron to town.
"You can’t do that without vibrancies and you can’t do that without entertainment infrastructure,” McMahon said. “And entertainment infrastructure at times are physical spaces, and they’re events"
Visit Syracuse Executive Director Danny Liedka expects the 2023 version to triple last year’s business, which amounted to a half million dollars. And he says it’s all part of creating a musical buzz around the community.
“It elevates our profile when we’re this serious about bringing top-level entertainment in Syracuse, I think we’re the poor man’s Nashville, becoming that,” Liedka said. “And we’re going to continue to invest in those areas, to grow this as maybe the music capital of the Northeast.”
All this is music to the ears of local business people like Ryan Benz. He owns some local restaurants and views things like Jazz Fest as key to a healthy downtown economy.
"Jazz Fest, like other festivals, is critical,” Benz said. “It really opens up the perspective of what downtown has to offer to people who don’t really come downtown.”
Local Jazz vocalist Ronnie Leigh has been around Jazz Fest since it started. And to see it return to glory days, has him speechless.
“This community is so hungry for the culture it came from, I don’t even know how to express it,” Leigh said. “It’s so necessary and so needed."
What’s billed as the Northeast’s largest free jazz festival runs from June 21 to the 25.
