Founded in 1960, Jazz à Juan is the oldest jazz festival in Europe and the one where Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles all played the same small stage under the umbrella pines of the Pinède Gould, fifty metres from the Mediterranean. The venue seats roughly 4,000 and has not been enlarged, which is deliberate and is why the festival's reputation has survived the Riviera's general inflation.
The organiser reported 30,000 spectators across the 2025 edition — a ticketed figure across the full run.
Programming has broadened beyond straight jazz into soul and world music, a shift the purists note annually.
Juan-les-Pins is part of Antibes and the accommodation is Riviera-priced in July. The free fringe, Jazz Off, plays in the town's squares and is the way to spend the hours before the evening set.
PlanningSeasonal window in mid-July; the Pinède seats about 4,000, so sell-outs happen early.