Swanage Jazz Festival set to sizzle over hot weekend

By Andrew Smith 10 July 2025, 6:00 am

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New Orleans jazz parade — Swanage Jazz Festival

A great weekend of top quality jazz is about to swing into Swanage in Dorset – with good weather guaranteed!

Swanage Jazz Festival holds its 34th event from Friday 11th to Sunday 13th July 2025 with 39 bands taking part over the three days, another 20 or more acts in the free fringe festival – and a zero percent chance of rain is forecast.

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Hejira will celebrate the music of Joni Mitchell at Swanage Jazz Festival 2025

First time at Swanage for headline acts

Headline acts who have never before played Swanage will be correcting that oversight, alongside some returning perennial favourites and some rising stars of the jazz scene.

Notable jazz anniversaries will be highlighted, including the 100th anniversary of the birth of Oscar Peterson and the death of sax player and composer, Benny Golson.

Tickets for the festival can still be bought online, with an option this year to buy one-off tickets for single concerts at £20 each, single day strollers for £95 a day on Saturday and Sunday – or just £55 for the Friday – or a great value £160 Access all Areas weekend stroller for all concerts over three days.

There is also a 10 percent discount prices on any stroller ticket for residents of BH19 – although these have to be purchased in person at the Swanage Information Centre on Shore Road with proof of home address.

Jazz festival at Sandpit field — Swanage Jazz Festival

The Jazz Festival returns once again to its spiritual home of Sandpit Field overlooking the bay, with the option to cool down by taking a dip in the sea

“39 bands of top quality”

Paul Kelly, chair of Swanage Jazz Festival 2025, said:

“What the public can look forward to is 39 bands of top quality spanning the widest range of jazz, everything from New Orleans to contemporary jazz.

“What event organisers want to be able to look forward to is something that runs to plan, when everyone arrives at the right time, where there are no problems and where the whole event runs smoothly – but there are always teething problems of some sort.

“The weather is forecast to be brilliant across the whole weekend. I’m just hoping that wall to wall sunshine won’t cause a traffic jam up the M27 or on the way into Swanage that causes logistical problems for us.

“We are also trying to encourage the public who are in Swanage anyway for the weekend, on the beach or around town, to come up to Sandpit Field where we have lots of food traders and free live music in the stretch tent for anyone to enjoy.”

Transatlantic jazz from Brit Terry Seabrook and American Peter Fraize as Atlanticus – let’s hope they’ve remembered their swimming trunks this time!

“There’s a lot to look forward to”

Paul added:

“We have a fingers and toes session of interactive jazz for five to ten year olds on Saturday and we start with jazz yoga on Saturday morning in the stretch tent, which is also free, though it will need booking.

“We are holding a jazz church service which we revived last year, in the Methodist Church at 10.30 am on Sunday, and there’s a jazz bus to take people from venue to venue.

“There’s a lot to look forward to, both on the ticketed system, and also the free Swanage fringe programme, all weekend in Swanage hotels and pubs.

“It’s a tough market at the moment for every single festival and we still have tickets available to buy online – but what I will say is that in the last month there has been a steady sale of tickets at a rate bigger than we projected.”

Elaine Delmar, now in her 80s but still making amazing jazz

Music by two master song writers

Two top headline acts who have never played Swanage before include Elaine Delmar, a superb jazz singer and stylist, and a bridge to a glittering past where talented artists moved from acting parts to singing roles and West End musicals. Elaine will be performing at The Mowlem on Friday 11th July 2025.

Now in her mid-80s, she remains in excellent voice and comes to Swanage to perform music by two master song writers – Cole Porter and Richard Rogers – and will be backed by her trio of Barry Green, Simon Thorpe and Bobby Worth.

Andy Sheppard, an international musician who has roots in the West Country but now lives in Portugal, performs at jazz festivals all over Europe – and will debut in Swanage, in the Sandpit Field on Saturday night, backed by John Parricelli, Dudley Phillips and Nic France.

Hattie Whitehead recreates the sound of Joni Mitchell with Hejira

Recreating a Joni Mitchell tour

In the biggest selling single ticket concert, Hejira is recreating a famous Joni Mitchell tour of the 1970s which included great jazz musicians like Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny and took Joni into her jazziest zone.

Closing Sunday night at The Mowlem is a much anticipated Pete Long’s Jazz at the Mowlemonic, a celebration with 10 top class musicians who know each other but don’t regularly perform together, performing a loose jam session in two 45 minute sets.

Other highlights of the weekend include two American musicians, tenor sax player Peter Fraize with Atlanticus and on Friday night, jazz rock guitarist BB Lenz.

Singer Emily Massey, right, will be starting a 130 mile walk to London for charity as soon as her Swanage gig is over

“I’ll be taking off my gig heels”

And for one of the festival’s rising young stars, singer Emily Masser, once her gig at The Mowlem finishes, she will start a five day, 130 mile sponsored walk to London to raise money to support independent jazz clubs across the UK.

Emily Masser said:

“I’ll be taking off my gig heels and start lacing up my hiking boots, walking from my gig at Swanage Jazz Festival all the way to my next gig at a jazz club in Soho, London on Friday 18th July, 2025.

“As a young jazz student, I don’t have a lot of spare cash to give, but I do have my time, energy, and slightly daft ideas. I’ve been so lucky to enjoy a busy diary of gigs this year, but I know how much these independent venues are struggling and how hard they work to keep it going.

“Grassroots Jazz aims to help jazz clubs that need financial support. The charity raises and allocates funds to the clubs that need the support.

“Throughout the walk, I’ll be meeting up with musicians, making and recording some music between the miles, before celebrating the end of the walk with a gig with my quartet, featuring saxophonist Alex Clarke.

“And every donation, no matter how small, will go towards helping to keep our jazz clubs alive for the next generation of musicians and audiences.”

Harpist Tara Minton will be playing at the Isle of Purbeck Golf Club in a collaborative event with Swanage Jazz Club – tickets sold separately

“A strange and wonderful craft”

Paul Kelly said:

“Being a musician is a strange and wonderful craft, many travel quite a long way to get to Swanage and that is easy to take for granted, so please give them lots of appreciation.

“After enjoying the hospitality of The Centre for a number of years, they have to focus on other priorities, so warm thanks to Kim Gallagher and her team for their past support as our New Orleans programme moves to the recently refurbished Mowlem Studio.

“The Stretch Tent we introduced on Sandpit Field last year was a huge success, so we are repeating that with live music sets whilst the main Marquee stage is reset, and we have more traders with a wider range of food and the Jazz Bar, so once again Sandpit Field will be our Jazz Village!

“We have listened to comments about last year’s printed programme and have added brief descriptions about the bands which we hope will make it easier for visitors to choose and plan. We hope everyone has a great weekend and we look forward to wondrous sounds and happy smiles!”