For forty-two years, the city of Burlington, Vermont, has turned itself over to jazz every June. The Discover Jazz Festival — operated by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts — fills the streets, clubs, and concert halls of downtown Burlington with five days of programming that ranges from free outdoor shows on Church Street to ticketed performances by internationally recognized artists. It is one of the longest-running jazz festivals in the United States, and it wears that history lightly.
The 2026 edition runs June 3 through 7, opening with “The Beat Beneath Us” — a collaboration featuring tap dancer Savion Glover, pianist Jason Moran, and drummer Chris “Daddy” Dave. That combination — the percussive precision of tap, the harmonic intelligence of Moran’s piano, the rhythmic invention of one of the most creative drummers in contemporary music — tells you everything about what Discover Jazz values: the connections between forms, the conversation between disciplines, the idea that jazz is not a museum piece but a living language.
Free and Ticketed
The festival’s dual structure is one of its strengths. Free outdoor performances throughout downtown Burlington create an atmosphere where jazz becomes part of the city’s daily rhythm — you hear it walking to lunch, browsing the shops on Church Street, sitting on the waterfront. The ticketed concerts at the Flynn and other venues provide the sit-down, focused listening experience that more demanding performances require. The two tiers feed each other: the free shows draw people in, and the ticketed shows give them somewhere deeper to go.
Burlington and Jazz
Burlington is a natural festival city — walkable, compact, set on the shore of Lake Champlain with the Adirondacks visible across the water. The restaurant and bar scene supports the festival with late-night sets and after-hours sessions that keep the music going well past the official schedule. For Upstate New York audiences, Burlington is a straight shot north from the Capital Region or across the lake from Plattsburgh — close enough for a day trip, rewarding enough for a full weekend.
Founded in 1984, Discover Jazz has built its reputation on consistency: year after year, the programming balances established names with emerging talent, traditional forms with contemporary experiment, and the kind of free community programming that makes jazz accessible to people who might never buy a ticket to a jazz club. That balance — between ambition and accessibility, between the concert hall and the street — is what has kept this festival vital for more than four decades.
2026
June 3 through 7 in Burlington, Vermont. Full schedule and tickets at flynnvt.org/bdjf. The free outdoor shows alone are worth the drive.