Founded in 1978, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival is now one of the largest and most respected jazz and blues festivals in Europe. We are one of the 10 major Edinburgh festivals that gives the city its reputation as the world’s leading festival city.
We are shaped by the city with 110 concerts taking place in theatres, parks and clubs in the city centre as well as in every ward in the city.
We present a programme that spans the entire history of the music from ragtime to modern jazz to Chicago blues and beyond. Our programming is bespoke for our audiences and regularly features new commissions, new projects and exciting collaborations with creative musicians from both home and abroad.
We champion Scottish musicians. They form the beating heart of the programme, we believe in the depth and breadth of talent that exists in Scotland and believe that our homegrown Scottish artists are talents that demand to be heard.
We also help to develop young artists, supporting them through their careers as they grow and develop towards the international stage.
We embrace and celebrate internationalism, bringing some of the finest artists working in the world today to Edinburgh.
Beyond the stage we also take responsibility towards enhancing people’s lives. Our Learning & Participation programmes help break down barriers to access the arts and expose people of all ages and abilities to the transformational power of music.
Our Vision
To be one of the world’s leading jazz and blues festivals, celebrated for pushing creative boundaries and breaking down barriers to the discovery and celebration of music and carnival arts.
Our Purpose
To create and present a festival and year-round work that champions jazz, blues and carnival arts, and enriches the lives of all who engage with us.
Our Values
Creativity: We place creativity at the core of our practice
Resilience: We will always work to find innovative solutions to any problems that we may encounter
Integrity: We hold ourselves to the highest standards of ethics and personal responsibility
Sustainability: We acknowledge our responsibility towards reducing the world’s carbon footprint
- To champion jazz and blues music and carnival arts as engaging and accessible artforms.
- To make a positive impact on communities right across the City of Edinburgh.
- To present creative and forward-looking programmes that have Scottish creativity at their heart.
- To make positive impacts on the jazz and blues and carnival scenes and be seen as sector leaders in these areas.
- To present inclusive projects ensuring that the communities we serve have a level of ownership over the output.
- To champion Scottish artists and creatives and put them on the international stage.
- To collaborate with local, national and international partners to present exciting projects and reach new audiences.
This statement confirms Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival’s commitment to ensuring fair working practices are in place in support of Fair Work First.
Fair Work First is the Scottish Government's flagship policy for driving high quality and fair work across the labour market in Scotland by applying fair work criteria to grants, other funding and contracts being awarded by and across the public sector, where it is relevant to do so. Through this approach, the Scottish Government is asking employers to adopt fair working practices, specifically:
- Payment of at least the real Living Wage.
- Providing appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition.
- Investment in workforce development.
- No inappropriate use of zero hours contracts.
- Action to tackle the gender pay gap and create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
- Offer flexible and family friendly working practices for all workers from day one of employment
- Opposing the use of fire and rehire practices
Our values and the priorities set out in our Business Plan 2025 – 2028 are aligned to the Fair Work First principles, further demonstrated by the following:
- We are Living Wage employers, this can be confirmed on the living wage website https://scottishlivingwage.org/employer-directory/edinburgh-jazz-blues-festival/
- We do not offer any zero-hour contracts and do not engage in ‘fire and rehire’ practices.
- We offer flexible working patterns and hours, remote working options, a flexible leave policy and have a generous TOIL policy.
- We provide a contract for all artist and staff that we work with to ensure that the terms of engagement are clear, that both sides are contractually protected, and that there are clear steps to conflict resolution. We also ensure that all artists and practitioners have a named staff liaison so that they can put a face to the organisation and have a line of direct contact to raise any issues.
- Our rates of pay for carnival artists, freelancers and technical staff are agreed in accordance with relevant unions including BECTU and the Scottish Arts Union.
- Our musician fee structure and working practices have been endorsed by the Musician’s Union.
- We commit to carrying out regular employee engagement surveys and offers other informal routes for engagement in line with our values.
- We monitor the protected characteristics of all who apply to work with us and take steps to ensure that we continue to receive applications from individuals across the protected characteristic groups.
- We have a formal continuing professional development programme for staff and ensure there is sufficient budget to deliver this.
