The Umbria Jazz Festival, held in the Renaissance hill city of Perugia, is one of the most important and widely recognized jazz festivals in the world. Held annually since 1973, it hosts scores of upcoming and established international jazz artists for 10 days. This year’s festival, which will run from July 7 to 16, will be its 50th edition.
Umbria Jazz was founded by Carlo Pagnotta in 1973 with the purpose of linking global jazz while promoting the small region of Umbria to the world. The first festival was hosted between the three Umbrian cities of Perugia, Gubbio, and Terni. In its 50 years of existence, the festival has been responsible for facilitating historic concerts such as: Sting meeting Gil Evans, Lady Gaga, Santana, Prince, Liza Minelli, Elton John, and many others.
Around the New Year, the Umbria Jazz Festival also holds a winter counterpart. Since 1992, the Umbria Jazz Winter Festival has been hosted in the medieval city of Orvieto with five days of soul, jazz, funk, and gospel music. This year’s Umbria Jazz Winter Festival will be held between December 28, 2023, to January 1, 2024.
This year’s festival will feature artists such as Bob Dylan, Mitch Woods, Nduduzo Makhathini, and Modalità Trio. Regarding Dylan’s concert, a phone-free concert that will take place at Arena Santa Giuliana on July 7, the festival has released some important information: the legendary singer-songwriter announced that cell phones will be banned at all of his concerts. Not only will photos and videos not be allowed, but the events themselves will be “phone free.”
Concert attendees will need to put their cellular devices in a closed bag supplied by San Francisco-based company Yondr for the entire night. The bags will be supplied to attendees at the entrance, and the process will be overseen by personnel. The Yondr bag locks once a device is placed inside of it. Attendees will keep their cell phones on them for the concert, and the bags can be unlocked at any time. In cases of emergencies, concert attendees can unlock their phones and use them, however, this must be done outside of the designated phone-free areas. This is a non-negotiable rule.
Asia London Palomba
Asia London Palomba is a trilingual freelance journalist from Rome, Italy. In the past, her work on culture, travel, and history has been published in The Boston Globe, Atlas Obscura, The Christian Science Monitor, and Grub Street, New York Magazine's food section. In her free time, Asia enjoys traveling home to Italy to spend time with family and friends, drinking Hugo Spritzes, and making her nonna's homemade cavatelli.