The TD Sask Jazz Festival has had its most successful year since the COVID-19 pandemic, with record breaking attendance and ticket sales, and an expanded community impact.

This year’s festival saw record attendance with a 25 per cent increase as well as a 60 per cent increase in ticket sales. The July 7th Modest Mouse show also set a new record for attendance at a ticketed show, with 4,478 people in attendance at Victoria Park.

The festival also expanded their community impacts this year, including welcoming 45 high school and university students to the annual University of Saskatchewan Jazz Intensive summer camp, adding 11 local care home performances by Saskatchewan artists to the Care Home Outreach program, and a continued growth of the Jazz in Schools Project, which supported jazz at five high schools in Saskatoon.

This year also saw a new food waste reduction and redistribution project, with the help of the non-profit Montreal-based La Tablée des Chefs. The project saw leftover food from the VIP areas and artist trailers get recovered, repackaged, and delivered over the course of the festival. The re-packaged food went to local partners at EGADZ and The Bridge on 20th.

With the record-breaking year behind, the crew behind the festival is looking forward to the 40th anniversary.

Executive Director of the Sask Jazz Fest, Shannon Josdal, says there will be a ticket promotion coming in the new year to celebrate the festival’s 40th anniversary.

“We are planning to have a special 40th anniversary discount available on tickets so stay tuned to know more about what that’s going to mean and what that’s going to entail.”

Josdal says people can look forward to seeing the festival back in action next year from July 4-10.