The Rosslyn Jazz Festival is scheduled to return in September with Cuban funk musician Cimafunk as the headliner.
Now in its 30th year, the festival is set to again be held at Gateway Park, at 1300 Lee Highway, between 1-7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10.
The event is free to attend but registration is encouraged due to the park’s capacity limit. Registration is set to open on the festival’s Eventbrite page on Monday, Aug. 1 at noon, according to the event’s website.
Music magazine Billboard ranked headliner Cimafunk as one of 10 Latin Artists to Watch in 2019. The musician described his band’s style as a “mix of funk with Cuban music and African rhythms,” according to his website.
The festival this year is set to have “an emphasis on international influences” and the musicians it invited “blend African, Afro-American, and Latino traditions, rhythms and movement with conventional jazz expression,” according to the event’s news release.
The rest of the lineup includes:
- Harlem-based Mwenso and the Shakes, a jazz and blues band made of up immigrants from all around the world
- Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, a soul-and-jazz fusion band from Seattle originally
- Groove Orchestra, a jazz ensemble headed by D.C. multi-instrumentalist Samuel Prather.
Rosslyn Business Improvement District, the organizer of the event, has planned to include food trucks at the event, according to the news release. The BID is also planning on arranging lawn games and merchandise sales, as well as having community organizations set up tables at the venue, President Mary-Claire Burick told ARLnow.
Prior to the festival, Rosslyn is also set to host a week of jazz events like pop-up concerts, Burick said. More information on that will be released later this summer. The jazz festival was held last year, for the first time since before the pandemic., but this year’s event promises to be more full featured.
“As the gateway to the D.C. region, we’re proud to bring back this event to the neighborhood in a way that’s bigger than ever before,” Burick said.