Black Sea Jazz Festival 2026 (19th Edition) Batumi: Georgia's Greatest Night Out Returns to the Black Sea Shore

Every July, something shifts in Batumi. The cafés on the boulevard stay open later. The crowd walking toward the Batumi Tennis Club is dressed differently — sharper, more expectant. The sound check carries across the warm evening air and into the streets around Ninoshvili, and the city collectively understands that the Black Sea Jazz Festival has arrived again.

Now entering its 19th edition, the Black Sea Jazz Festival is Georgia's most celebrated summer music event and one of the defining annual occasions on the entire Caucasus cultural calendar. Founded in 2007, it has spent nearly two decades proving that world-class jazz, soul, funk, and R&B can find one of their finest stages not in New York or Montreux or North Sea — but on the Georgian Black Sea coast, with the sea breeze coming off the water, stars overhead, and an audience that genuinely loves music rather than simply attending it.

The 2026 edition follows the festival's established July tradition, with the 19th edition expected in mid-July 2026 at the Batumi Tennis Club — the same seaside venue that hosted the critically acclaimed 18th edition in July 2025. Exact dates and lineup confirmation are expected in the months ahead from organiser TBC Concept, who has presented recent editions.

Nineteen Years of Black Sea Jazz: How a Festival Became a Georgian Institution

The story of the Black Sea Jazz Festival begins in 2007, when organisers first brought international jazz artists to Batumi's Black Sea coast as an experiment in what a Caucasian seaside city could offer to the global music world. The answer, it turned out, was: quite a lot.

The early editions were jazz-focused and relatively modest in scale, but they established something important: Batumi audiences respond to live music with the kind of engaged, grateful enthusiasm that international artists find genuinely rewarding. Georgia has its own deep musical culture — the UNESCO-listed polyphonic singing tradition, the complex rhythms of Kartvelian folk music, the lively contemporary music scene in Tbilisi — and audiences who grow up with that kind of musical sophistication bring something to a concert that passive stadium crowds do not.

Word spread quickly. As the festival broadened its genre scope to include soul, blues, R&B, funk, hip-hop, rock, disco, and Brazilian rhythms alongside jazz, the headliner quality escalated rapidly. By the 2010s, the Black Sea Jazz Festival was attracting artists who headline the world's finest music festivals: Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Jamiroquai, Snoop Dogg, George Clinton, Sergio Mendes, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Kool & the Gang, Lisa Stansfield, The Prodigy, and Chris Brown all performed in Batumi under the festival banner.

The 10th edition in 2016 — running July 15–24, a full 10-day programme — remains the largest in the festival's history, a landmark moment that demonstrated just how far the event had grown from its 2007 debut.

More recent editions have refined the format to three intense evenings — the 2023 16th edition at the newly opened Stage 17 venue on Rustaveli Street featured Marcus Miller, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, and Bedford Falls; the 18th edition in 2025 at the Batumi Tennis Club brought Ledisi, Sister Sledge, and Swiss-based soul outfit Vincen Garcia / The Next Movement to the Batumi stage in a three-night programme on July 11–13.

The 2025 edition was presented by TBC Concept with Visa as presenting sponsor — and the after-party tradition of official jam sessions at Club Take 5 continued a format that has become as much a part of the festival experience as the main stage concerts themselves.

The Venue: Batumi Tennis Club and the Sound of the Sea

The Batumi Tennis Club at 1 Ninoshvili Street served as the 2025 festival home and is expected to host the 2026 edition again — a venue whose open-air configuration, central Batumi location, and capacity for large standing and seated crowds make it one of the better outdoor concert settings in the South Caucasus.

What makes the Batumi Tennis Club work as a music venue is what makes Batumi itself work as a festival city: the combination of warm summer evenings (July average highs of 28–30°C), the subtropical night air, and the proximity to the sea. The Batumi Boulevard is a short walk from Ninoshvili Street — meaning the festival's audiences arrive along one of the Black Sea's most beautiful promenades, past the rotating Ali and Nino statue, past the fountains and cafés and the distant sound of waves, before arriving at the concert entrance. That approach alone is worth the trip.

The festival has used different venues across its 19-year history — the Black Sea Arena for the largest editions, Stage 17 at 34 Rustaveli Street (a newer cultural venue) for the 2023 edition, and the Tennis Club most recently — reflecting both the growth and the evolution of the festival's format. Each venue has brought something different to the experience, but the constants have always been the same: an audience packed close to the stage, the night sky above, and the knowledge that the sea is a few minutes' walk away.

Who Has Played Black Sea Jazz: A Stage That Has Seen Everything

The Black Sea Jazz Festival has built one of the most eclectic and impressive performer rosters of any Caucasus-based music event — a list that reflects the festival's deliberate decision not to stay narrowly within jazz but to treat jazz as the entry point for a much broader conversation about Black music and its global influence.

A selection of confirmed past headliners:

Jazz and soul masters:

• Al Jarreau (vocalist, multi-Grammy winner, one of the greatest jazz singers of the 20th century)
• Quincy Jones (producer, composer, arranger — arguably the most influential figure in popular music history)
• Sergio Mendes (Brazilian pop-jazz legend; "Mas Que Nada," "Never Gonna Let You Go")
• Marcus Miller (bass virtuoso, composer, Miles Davis collaborator)
• Lisa Stansfield ("All Around the World")
• Ledisi (neo-soul and jazz vocalist; 2025 headliner)
• Sister Sledge ("We Are Family"; 2025 headliner)

Rock, funk, and crossover:

• Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin vocalist)
• Jamiroquai (Jay Kay; acid jazz and funk)
• The Prodigy (electronic breakbeat)
• Kool & the Gang ("Celebration," "Get Down on It")
• George Clinton (Parliament-Funkadelic; the father of funk)

Hip-hop and contemporary:

• Snoop Dogg
• Chris Brown

Soul and R&B:

• Brooklyn Funk Essentials (2023)
• Bedford Falls (2023)
• Vincen Garcia / The Next Movement (2025)

This roster confirms what the festival's reputation suggests: the Black Sea Jazz Festival is not a local event that occasionally books an international act. It is a genuinely international festival that competes for artist bookings with major European summer events.

The 2026 Lineup: What to Expect

As of April 2026, the 19th edition lineup has not been formally announced. Based on the festival's consistent pattern — organiser TBC Concept typically announces headliners in late spring ahead of the July dates — the 2026 announcement is expected in May or June 2026 through the festival's social channels and the official Georgian tourism portal.

What the past 18 editions confirm is the kind of booking the festival targets: at least one major international headliner per evening (three evenings across the festival), typically drawn from soul, jazz, R&B, funk, or contemporary crossover genres, with a track record of delivering artists who are genuinely active and significant in their fields rather than heritage acts relying purely on nostalgia.

The pattern of recent years suggests increasing emphasis on soul and R&B artists with strong live performance reputations — Ledisi (2025) and Sister Sledge (2025) fit this model perfectly, as did Marcus Miller (2023) on the jazz side.

Follow the 2026 announcement at the festival's confirmed channels:

• Georgia Tourism: georgia.travel/black-sea-jazz-festival
• Batumi Events: batumievents.com
• tkt.ge (official Georgian ticket platform, used for 2025 VIP passes)

After the Main Stage: Jam Sessions at Club Take 5

One of the distinctives of the Black Sea Jazz Festival experience — confirmed across the 2025 edition and previous years — is the official jam session programme at Club Take 5 in Batumi, which runs after each main stage concert.

Club Take 5 is Batumi's dedicated jazz club, named after one of the most famous jazz compositions in history (Dave Brubeck's "Take Five"). After the main concert ends, artists, musicians from supporting acts, and talented local players gather at Club Take 5 for impromptu sessions that run deep into the Batumi night — the loose, spontaneous antithesis of the structured headline set, where musical conversations happen between players who have just shared a stage and want to keep the energy going.

For jazz enthusiasts, the jam sessions are often the highlight of the festival experience: smaller space, closer to the musicians, no setlist, and the particular creative electricity that happens when excellent players test each other without preparation. Club Take 5 is the kind of venue that jazz cities all over the world try to build, and Batumi has had one since the festival established this tradition.

Tickets and Pricing: The 2026 Structure

Full ticket details for the 2026 edition will be announced by TBC Concept alongside the lineup confirmation.

Based on the 2025 edition structure:

• VIP Pass: Available via tkt.ge — covered the full three-night programme at the Batumi Tennis Club with premium placement
• Daily tickets: Available per evening
• Doors: Opened at 19:00; concerts typically began at 20:00–20:30
• Venue capacity: The Batumi Tennis Club accommodates several thousand standing/seated audience members depending on configuration

For 2026 ticket updates, monitor tkt.ge (the official Georgian ticketing platform used for recent editions) and the festival's social media channels.

Practical Travel Information for the 19th Black Sea Jazz Festival

Getting to Batumi for the July festival has never been simpler:

By air: Batumi International Airport (BUS) serves direct connections from Tbilisi (30 minutes), Istanbul, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, and a growing roster of European and Middle Eastern routes. The airport is 4 kilometres from the city center — a 10–15 minute taxi for approximately €5–8. Tbilisi Kutaisi International Airport (KUT) is also worth checking for budget connections from Europe, with bus/taxi transfers to Batumi available.

By train from Tbilisi: The scenic Tbilisi-Batumi rail journey takes approximately 4–5.5 hours on the regular service; the fast Pendolino cuts this to approximately 4 hours. Tickets start from GEL 25 (approximately €8–10). The train station is centrally located in Batumi — a short taxi ride from the Tennis Club venue.

Visa: Georgia maintains one of the world's most generous visa-free entry policies — citizens of most EU, US, UK, Canadian, Australian, Israeli, Turkish, Japanese, and South Korean nationals can enter visa-free for up to 365 days.

Weather in July Batumi: July average highs of 28–30°C, with warm evenings around 23–25°C — ideal outdoor concert conditions. The subtropical climate can produce brief afternoon thunderstorms, but July evenings are typically warm and clear.

Accommodation: Batumi's hotel range extends from budget guesthouses (€25–40/night) through mid-range boutique options (€60–100) to seafront international hotels (€120–200+). The Radisson Blu Hotel Batumi at 1 Ninoshvili Street is directly adjacent to the Tennis Club venue and is the most convenient option for festival-goers wanting to walk from hotel room to concert in under five minutes. Book well in advance for July — Batumi's peak summer season means availability tightens from April onwards.

Batumi During Jazz Festival Week: The Complete Experience

A trip to the Black Sea Jazz Festival is naturally embedded in what Batumi offers around it, and the city's July calendar in 2026 is one of its most event-dense in recent memory.

The Black Sea Jazz Festival runs July 11–13 in the 19th edition (expected, based on the 18th edition's July 11–13 2025 dates — to be confirmed). The Tall Ships Races occupied Batumi's harbour in the same general period. The Golden Fleece folklore competition runs July 8–13 at the Batumi Summer Theatre. Three separate major events in the same two-week window means Batumi in mid-July 2026 is operating at a cultural intensity that very few cities its size can match.

Beyond the festival programme:

The Batumi Boulevard — six kilometres of Black Sea promenade — is the daily social spine of the city: cafés, the Ali and Nino rotating sculpture, the Batumi Ferris Wheel, the Piazza district with its ornate 19th-century European-style architecture, and direct beach access. Evenings on the boulevard before the jazz concert are one of the great simple pleasures of a Batumi summer.

Adjarian cuisine rewards attention: Adjarian khachapuri (boat-shaped, with egg and butter), fresh Black Sea fish, walnut-based sauces, lobiani bean bread, and the enormous variety of Georgian wine and chacha (grape spirit) make food in Batumi a serious pleasure alongside the music.

The Batumi Botanical Garden (8 km north, €3 entry, 108 hectares of subtropical plants with sea views) and Gonio Fortress (12 km south, a Roman-era fortification from the 1st–4th century AD) round out the cultural and natural sightseeing options immediately accessible from the festival base.

A Festival That Earns Its Place in the July Calendar

The 19th Black Sea Jazz Festival represents something genuinely worth planning a trip around. Nineteen years of exceptional performers, a crowd that understands the music it is hearing, a venue where the Black Sea is never far away, and the after-show promise of Club Take 5 running until the Batumi dawn — this is not a festival that asks you to make allowances for its setting. It is a festival that delivers precisely because of it.

When TBC Concept announces the 19th edition lineup — expected May or June 2026 — Batumi hotel rooms will start disappearing fast. Watch georgia.travel and tkt.ge for the announcement, and book before Batumi's July sells out around you.

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