Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival, September 15-25, 2010

The ever-expanding Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival had its biggest year ever in 2009, featuring 20 bands and 130 musicians on ten stages, stretching over several days in September. While the ticketed concerts attracted large crowds, the free outdoor festival drew an estimated 80,000—a new festival record, earning accolades from The Boston Phoenix: "Berklee is a bottomless resource for the city's music scene—the BeanTown Fest has to rank as one of its sweetest gifts," writes Jon Garelick.

The Baystate Banner drew comparisons to the New Orleans Jazz Festival and cited the "multicultural mix of music" as one of the BeanTown festival's strong suits.

Over the nine days of the festival, performers took to stages at Scullers Jazz Club, Regattabar, and Wally's Cafe, in addition to several Berklee venues. Artists ranged from legendary musicians to emerging stars and from veteran Berklee faculty members and alumni to current students.

Berklee College of Music is the proud recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the 2010 Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival. In awarding the prestigious Access to Artistic Excellence grant to Berklee and consortium partner JazzBoston, Inc., the NEA cited the festival as a celebration of Boston’s diversity as reflected in the attendees, music, food, and crafts.