Nice staged what is generally counted as the first international jazz festival in 1948, with Louis Armstrong's band at the Casino Municipal. The modern event moved from the Roman site at Cimiez down into the city centre, where it now uses the Jardin Albert Ier and the Place Masséna, with two stages running alternately so the audience moves between them.
The city reported 44,000 spectators across the 2025 edition.
Programming is broad: jazz proper alongside soul, funk and electronic acts, which draws the usual complaint and the usual larger audience.
It falls within days of Jazz à Juan, fifteen kilometres down the coast, and the two are constantly mistaken for one another — Juan is the older, smaller, seaside one; Nice is the urban one. Doing both in a week is entirely possible and is what the jazz audience on the Riviera actually does.
PlanningSeasonal window in mid-July, a few days after Jazz à Juan — the two are routinely confused.