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Joy of Jazz festival

Annual Johannesburg jazz festival produced by T-Musicman since 1997, title-sponsored by Standard Bank.

Based in
Johannesburg, South Africa
Founded
1997
Founder
Peter Tladi

Standard Bank Joy of Jazz is an annual jazz festival held in Johannesburg, produced by T-Musicman, an artist management and promotions company founded by Peter Tladi in 1989. The festival began in 1997 at the State Theatre in Pretoria, moved to Newtown’s arts precinct in Johannesburg in 2000, and has been staged at the Sandton Convention Centre since 2014.

Ownership sits with T-Musicman: Tladi chairs the company, with Mantwa Chinoamadi as CEO. Standard Bank is the title sponsor, a role it has held since the festival’s creation, but it does not own or produce the event. The festival now draws more than 20,000 attendees across multiple stages over two nights, and has been cited by Johannesburg officials as an example of a public-private arts partnership.

Joy of Jazz has built a reputation for pairing South African and pan-African jazz artists with international names, and remains one of the country’s longest-running annual music events.

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