A new music festival coming to Door County in 2025 will leave you chasing saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and more around the peninsula. The Door County Jazz Festival will occur during the first week of August before hitting a crescendo at Sunset Park in Sturgeon Bay on August 9th and 10th. It has been two years since Hortonville native and national recording artist Staci Griesbach came up with the idea. Outside of the jazz academy sessions at Birch Creek Music Performance Center, Griesbach noticed there was no jazz festival for a community that supports the arts as well as it does. Drawing on her performances at larger jazz festivals like the Newport Jazz Fest and the Monterey Jazz Fest and her time as an executive for Sony Pictures, Griesbach is excited to take on the challenge of being the festival’s founder and artistic director.

Griesbach hopes to book a wide range of performers for the weeklong festival, including ensembles from area colleges and Birch Creek. She hopes to release more details, including specific venues and bands, in the coming weeks and months on their website and social channels. The start of the festival also means the launch of the Door County Jazz Foundation, the non-profit tasked with putting on the event. You can learn more about the foundation and how you can support it here.