Building a New Jazz Festival in London
by Payal Wadhwa - Founder: De Beauvoir Jazz Festival
Issue VI. June 2025
A new jazz festival featuring the biggest names in jazz from across the UK and internationally, as well as homegrown stars from Hackney. Come together for two days of music making at the inaugural De Beauvoir Jazz Festival on the 11th and 12th of July and tell everyone you know...
I moved to London 17 years ago, settling eventually in the quiet corner where Hackney meets Islington. This is De Beauvoir, a neighbourhood I call home. Honestly, I would have laughed myself out of a room had the consideration of starting a festival been a thought even a year ago. Sometimes, the most meaningful projects emerge not from grand plans, but from simple conversations with neighbours about what’s needed in our spaces and our communities.
The De Beauvoir Jazz Festival, taking place this July 11-12, grew from exactly those conversations – with fellow creatives, local business owners, and residents who, like me, felt we could create something special right here in our neighbourhood. I’ve spent two decades working in design and civic innovation, so I come from a very different world from that of music. I’ve always been interested in how communities can shape their own cultural landscapes and how the performing arts matter, now more importantly than ever before. There’s a good reason to get off our screens, back into our common spaces, immersing ourselves in something as universal and magical as jazz.
This neighbourhood in North/NorthEast London is rife with potential as a stage for the arts. It’s served as the greatest inspiration for the festival, and you could almost suggest the festival itself is site-specific. In shaping this festival, there’s a deliberate response to rethink the model of a typical festival. Instead of building temporary infrastructure at significant expense, and creating a footprint unsustainable commercially and ecologically, we’re leveraging the incredible assets that already exist in De Beauvoir – our independent venues, our pedestrian-friendly streets, and most importantly, our community spirit. This isn’t just about bringing stellar music to the neighbourhood; we aim to demonstrate how grassroots cultural production can work sustainably and inclusively, creating a street-level immersion in London’s vital music scene.
Photo: The Benyon Estate
The festival also addresses an idea expressed within the community to help demystify this music. Whilst jazz can command the biggest stages, the music also thrives on intimacy and community connection. To some, the experience of witnessing it can sometimes feel opaque, inaccessible or exclusive - depending on the venues it is staged within. We’d love to challenge those perceptions by bringing world-class artists into familiar neighbourhood spaces, introducing new audiences to jazz and ensuring everyone’s invited. This of course includes everyone who lives in De Beauvoir, Hackney, Islington and everyone across London and beyond.
De Beauvoir has been a Low Traffic Neighbourhood for over 50 years, making it uniquely suited to stage a festival that embraces pedestrian culture. It also plays host to fiercely independent businesses (there’s not a chain in sight). Our programming spans multiple walkable venues and public spaces, encouraging people to explore the neighbourhood’s quieter, safer streets. I’m deeply inspired by the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans - it is pedestrianised, is free and child friendly with great dining spots littered across the French Quarter that serve as perfect pitstops across days of music with family and friends. More so, it’s special because here, the grandest and local musicians rub shoulders playing free street stages, year after year - creating an opportunity for exchange and collaboration - not just for the musicians - but also for local businesses and audiences.
There’s an enduring musical tradition in New Orleans [that our festival is inspired by] – where young musicians perform on its streets to hone their chops and build their hustle, helping them grow into accomplished professionals. Much of this happens under the careful stewardship and guidance of older musicians, making sure the next generation is protected, nurtured culturally, and learns to play their instruments and the songs as a cohesive unit, as a band. It’s a practice that shapes aesthetics, worldviews, and even careers – one that is rich with stories and keeps the culture of the city thriving. - Karen Lozinski, French Quarter Journal.
De Beauvoir lends itself well to this ethos. I’m excited about the encounters and collaborations that may stem from this festival and how it may shape new music we find in the city. The possibilities of various creative connections may end up being plentiful - helping us deepen a sense of place and belonging in the neighbourhood. We’ll have stages right on the street alongside performances in our cherished local venues. Additionally, we’re partnering with Forest Bikes to create a self-guided tour of legendary music spots in and beyond the neighbourhood, offering festival-goers free minutes to discover the area’s rich musical heritage. People can discover both the music and the place that nurtures it. To me, when streets prioritise people over cars, they become natural spaces for community connection and creative expression.
Peter Horsfall is our Artistic Director, bringing not just his expertise as an internationally renowned trumpeter, but a deep understanding of how jazz actually thrives in a city like London today. Pete’s perspective is that jazz in London thrives on intimacy, community and a deep grassroots scene of world-class musicians busily at work in the city, and this resonates deeply with me. With this festival, we are building on this incredibly strong foundation. London is home to extraordinary jazz musicians who rival the best globally. Our lineup reflects this wealth of talent from across the country, locally across Hackney whilst also bringing together musicians from across the world.
The festival has secured Arts Council funding and an extraordinary lineup that embodies the breadth of London’s contemporary jazz movement. The Opening Night on 11th July witnesses sublime vocalist Georgia Cecile playing at the Hoxton Hall (down the road from De Beauvoir Town); Georgia’s sophisticated soundscapes have earned her critical acclaim across Europe. NYC’s pianist Gordon Webster, one of the most sought after musicians in the lindy hop world plays at Bishopsgate Institute, the same night. Ensuring irresistible danceability, the festival kicks off in style.
12th July brings the festival back into the heart of the neighbourhood. Trumpet virtuoso (also, JazzFM’s Instrumentalist of the Year 2025) Mark Kavuma brings his formidable ensemble The Banger Factory, whose fusion of hard bop, afrobeat and contemporary influences has established them as one of the scene’s most compelling bands. The festival also features reed maestros Giacomo Smith and Adrian Cox whose distinctive approaches to woodwind performance demonstrate the stylistic diversity driving London’s jazz renaissance. DJ Lil’ Koko and Island Girl promise an enchanting spin around jazz from New Orleans and Chicago, funk, folk and urban beats, Cajun punk oddities whilst South Bank Centre’s Kinetiko Bloco bring delight and wonder aplenty.
Nathaniel Facey & Shaney Forbes play the stage at Vortex as one of our festival partner venues whilst local musicians from De Beauvoir Town - Irene Serra and Peter Werth, Hackney’s Grand Union Orchestra as well as multi-instrumentalist and musicians extraordinaires Ewan Bleach & The Fleeting Paradise Orchestra form a part of the lineup; rounding out a bill that spans jazz’s many contemporary expressions.
We’re building this as a genuinely family-friendly festival where all generations can engage with jazz and its social and cultural histories together. Intergenerational workshops by Kinetika Bloco will bring together residents of all ages, while carnival headgear making workshops with Tropical Isles offer hands-on creative experiences. An exhibition of Eduardo Paolozzi’s jazz posters at 20th Century Posters shines a light on the connection between poster art, the changing role of advertising and music and the National Jazz Archives’ exhibition - 100 Jazz Albums that Shook the World - in association with Jazzwise and JazzEast - helps audiences explore jazz’s social history through the music and album art. These workshops and exhibitions represent new creative collaborations that extend the festival’s reach beyond just concerts. We want people to leave not just having heard great music, but having actively participated in creating and discovering something together.
Whilst this is the inaugural year, it is planned this as an annual festival - which has needed considered thought about conscious growth. We’re applying principles of resilient and sustainable change to cultural production – working with existing venues and infrastructure, reducing waste, and creating focused economic and social benefits for the fiercely independent businesses as well as the community - that make De Beauvoir special. The support we’ve received from Arts Council England, Hackney Council, and the Englefield Charitable Estate demonstrates how public investment can catalyse genuine community ownership of culture. Over time, we’re keen to seek out values-centric organisational backers as well; we don’t want to be only dependent on public grants to keep us going. Whilst we started with plans to keep this festival completely free, we haven’t fully achieved it this year. That said, we have pulled off the herculean task of offering over 8 free events and 7 ticketed ones with the most brilliant names in jazz playing our festival.
Of what is ticketed, it is well priced with a range of concessions and all our grants go a long way to help us offer highly subsidised tickets to residents of the three local estates in the neighbourhood. Equally important to us is our commitment to fair pay, ensuring that the musicians and everyone working towards making this festival happen are paid appropriately. We’re not alone in making this happen. The support in kind from businesses such as AudioGold, Marksons Pianos, Benyon Estate, Yolk and StoryOfHome will help us reach newer audiences and pull off this edition at a scale that would have been much harder to do on our own.
As a South Asian woman leading a jazz festival, I’m acutely aware of the importance of representation in cultural programming. The contribution of collectives such as Women in Jazz is not lost on me. I’m spending time engaging with current commentary on the scene as well as archival material to teach myself more about this music that I love. It remains evident that there remain many unpaid dues. Our lineup prominently features brilliant women in London’s jazz scene, as well as honours the legacy of the different communities to whom jazz belongs. This isn’t tokenism – it’s recognition that the future of jazz depends on embracing the full spectrum of talent as well as the audiences that exist in our city. I’m conscious that our festival can be a meaningful space for quieter voices and perspectives that haven’t always been highlighted. We will not get this right in the first go, but the festival aims to take conscious decisions to ensure we can build slow, listen and learn and build again, year after year.
By presenting jazz in familiar neighbourhood settings, alongside family activities and community workshops, we hope to remove barriers that might otherwise prevent people from engaging with this incredible music. We also look forward to building a model for how communities can take ownership of their cultural lives, creating programming that reflects our values and serves our needs. We’re a Community Interest Company, this has been a labour of love, every venue and every band is special, it’s year one and we hope people will come to celebrate good music and good times.
We’d love it if you’d tell all your friends and come with your families, your dogs, your neighbours, the aunties down the street. The music promises to be faultless, and the support we’ve had from the likes of the North London Jazz Collective is wonderful to say the very least.
Who knows what next year looks like. But you coming along this year will give us a good steer for the next.
See you at the De Beauvoir Jazz Festival on the 11th and the 12th of July.
Tickets available at www.debeauvoirjazzfestival.co.uk/tickets
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