The Hyde Park Jazz Festival returns to full flower
The crowd at the fest—activists, dancers, students, radio hosts, dog walkers, retired teachers, an ironworker in a tiara—is just as much fun as the top-shelf musicians on its stages.
October 3, 2022
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival defied the pandemic with ingenious safety accommodations in 2020, presenting 18 brief pop-up concerts in parks, pedways, and sidewalks between 40th and 61st Streets, all announced at the last minute to minimize crowding. Last year the festival strived for a return to normalcy and almost got there, booking a slightly diminished lineup and leaving some restrictions and precautions in place. This year the HPJF triumphantly returned to full strength, with 37 concerts and presentations on 13 stages in ten venues.