The Blue Jay Jazz Festival

Every August, something genuinely special happens in the San Bernardino Mountains. A three-night jazz festival draws music lovers from across Southern California to one of the most naturally beautiful concert settings you’ll find anywhere in the region — lakeside stages, pine-scented air, and a lineup of artists that regularly pulls from the top tier of jazz, soul, R&B, and beyond.

The Blue Jay Jazz Festival has been a fixture of the mountain arts community for nearly two decades. What started as a modest cultural initiative has grown into a multi-venue, three-day event with a loyal regional following and a mission that extends well beyond the music itself. For 2026, the festival runs August 27–29, splitting its program between Tavern Bay Beach Club on Lake Arrowhead and San Moritz Lodge in Crestline — two venues that couldn’t be more different from each other, and both worth the trip on their own merits.

This guide covers everything you need to know: the festival’s history, the full 2026 lineup, venue logistics, what to do in the surrounding area, and how to plan an overnight stay that makes the most of your time in the mountains.

What Is the Blue Jay Jazz Festival?

A Celebration of Jazz and Beyond

The Blue Jay Jazz Festival is not a traditional jazz festival in the purist sense — and that’s part of what makes it work. The mission, as the foundation describes it, is to pay tribute to jazz as a uniquely American art form and all its musical relatives: blues, R&B, funk, Latin jazz, big band, rock, and pop. In practice, this means the lineup any given year might span salsa rhythms, soul balladry, hard-swinging big band arrangements, and guitar virtuosity that sits comfortably between jazz and rock.

That breadth matters. It makes the festival genuinely accessible to listeners who might not typically describe themselves as jazz fans while still delivering the musical depth that dedicated enthusiasts are after.

The atmosphere is community-focused by design. This is not a corporate music event. It’s run by an all-volunteer nonprofit, supported by local businesses and sponsors, and very much shaped by the mountain communities that have hosted it for years.

The Blue Jay Jazz Foundation

The festival is produced by the Blue Jay Jazz Foundation (BJJF), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2007. The foundation’s work extends beyond the annual festival into year-round music education initiatives for young people in the San Bernardino Mountain communities.

Key programs include:

Future Generations of Jazz — Annual scholarship grants and excellence awards presented to deserving high school musicians, given in partnership with the Rotary Club of Lake Arrowhead
Adopt an Instrument — A lending program that accepts donated instruments, refurbishes them as needed, and provides them to students who otherwise wouldn’t have access
Live performance opportunities — Each year’s Thursday night concert features a special awards ceremony showcasing that year’s scholarship recipients performing alongside professional artists

The foundation is managed entirely by volunteers, which gives it a genuinely grassroots character that you can feel at the events themselves.

The History of the Blue Jay Jazz Festival

How It All Began

The roots of the Blue Jay Jazz Festival go back further than the foundation itself. In 1991, the Arrowhead Arts Association — a nonprofit formed in 1985 to bring classical music and fine arts to the mountain communities — initiated a pop and jazz music series as part of its expanding cultural programming. Three key figures were instrumental in launching what would eventually become the festival: Patti Doyle of the Arrowhead Arts Association, Dr. Hugh Bialecki of the Blue Jay Business Association, and Simon Barley of the American Jazz Symposium.

The Arrowhead Arts Association provided the early institutional framework and community credibility that allowed the jazz programming to take root. Over time, the festival grew into an independent organization in its own right.

Growth Through the Years

Early Festival Years in Blue Jay

For more than a decade, the festival was held in an unlikely but beloved spot: the parking lot above the Rite-Aid in the mountain community of Blue Jay. There’s something endearingly specific about that detail. It wasn’t a purpose-built venue or a resort lawn — it was a parking lot that the community transformed into a concert space year after year. The festival built its loyal audience right there.

Expansion and Venue Changes

In 2017 and 2018, the festival made a significant move to SkyPark at Santa’s Village in Sky Forest, east of Lake Arrowhead. The change brought larger crowds, new donors, and expanded exposure for the foundation’s education programs. It also helped strengthen the financial base that would support future growth.

After two successful years at SkyPark, the festival didn’t return — circumstances at the park made it impractical to continue. But rather than stepping back, the foundation stepped forward.

The Modern Festival Era

In 2019, the Blue Jay Jazz Festival made a historic transition: for the first time, concerts were held on three consecutive evenings in August, spread across multiple venues including Arrowhead Lake Association’s Tavern Bay Beach Club and the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa. The multi-day, multi-venue format gave the festival a new scale and character while keeping the intimate, community-rooted atmosphere that had always defined it.

The 2020 festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — a difficult moment for a volunteer-run organization that depends on live events to fund its education programs. The festival returned stronger, and it has continued to grow its regional reputation in the years since. The 2026 edition marks the Blue Jay Jazz Festival’s 19th annual installment.

Blue Jay Jazz Festival 2026: Event Overview

Festival Dates

August 27–29, 2026 — three consecutive evenings of live music, with gates opening at 5:00 PM for both Thursday and Friday nights and 4:00 PM on Saturday. Each night features an opening act followed by the main headliner.

Festival Theme: “Style and Sass!”

The 2026 theme gives the weekend a particular personality — it’s a nod to the kind of confident, expressive musicianship that the festival has always championed. Expect programming that leans into the flair and showmanship of artists who don’t just play their instruments but inhabit them. This year’s lineup makes the theme feel apt.

Festival Venues

Tavern Bay Beach Club (Thursday & Friday)

Tavern Bay Beach Club, operated by the Arrowhead Lake Association (ALA) at 28399 North Shore Road on Lake Arrowhead, is the festival’s primary home for the first two nights. It’s the kind of setting that makes you feel slightly lucky to be there — an open-air lakeside venue with mountain views and the kind of natural acoustics that no concert hall can fully replicate.

Important logistics for Tavern Bay nights:

Food and drinks: Both Thursday and Friday at Tavern Bay are strictly bring-your-own-picnic. No food or beverages are sold on-site — pack everything you’ll need for the evening, including any drinks. Tables with tablecloths and chairs are provided. Bring a flashlight and a jacket; it gets dark and significantly colder after sunset.
Parking: There is no parking in the Tavern Bay Beach Club lot itself. Several ALA-authorized parking lots are located near the venue, and parking attendants will direct guests. Drop-off of individuals and picnic supplies is permitted (no waiting). Handicapped and special needs assisted parking is available — notify an attendant on arrival.
Check-in: Print your Ticket Leap ticket in advance for prompt scanning. Check in at the walk-in gate near ALA’s East Parking Lot.

San Moritz Lodge, Crestline (Saturday)

The festival’s Saturday night finale takes place at the historic San Moritz Lodge in Crestline, overlooking Lake Gregory. The setting has a different character than Tavern Bay — more sheltered, with level entry directly from the parking area and views of the lake that give it its own kind of mountain magic.

Important logistics for San Moritz:

Food and drinks: Unlike the Tavern Bay nights, no outside food or drink is permitted at San Moritz Lodge. Food and beverages are available for purchase on-site.
Parking: Free parking is available in the San Moritz Lodge lot for festival guests. Additional paid parking is available in surrounding lots.
Check-in: Level entry from the parking area. Print your Ticket Leap ticket in advance.

Blue Jay Jazz Festival 2026 Lineup

Thursday, August 27 — Tavern Bay Beach Club


Gate time	5:00 PM
Opening show	6:00 PM
Main show	7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Headliner: The Carl Verheyen Group

Carl Verheyen is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and educator best known as a longtime member of Supertramp — one of the defining rock acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s — and leader of the Carl Verheyen Group. Ranked among the world’s top guitarists, Verheyen has recorded 16 albums, played on hundreds of records, and contributed to major film and television soundtracks. He is acclaimed for his virtuosity across rock, jazz, blues, and country styles, and is also a sought-after session musician and instructor with significant influence in guitar education circles.

For listeners who know Supertramp’s catalog, hearing Verheyen in a jazz-leaning festival context is a treat — the harmonic sophistication and melodic sensibility that made those records work translate beautifully to this kind of performance.

Opening Act: Six Beats Apart

Opening Thursday night is Six Beats Apart, a classic fusion band made up of some of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles. Their credits span numerous top-selling albums, feature films, television productions, and live performances alongside jazz greats including Freddie Hubbard, Red Garland, Eddie Harris, and Nancy Wilson. It’s the kind of opening act that would comfortably headline at smaller festivals.

Future Generation Jazz Scholars Ceremony

Thursday night also includes a special awards ceremony honoring the Blue Jay Jazz Foundation’s 2026 Future Generation Jazz Scholars. This annual ceremony is one of the more meaningful moments in the festival — a chance to hear from young musicians whose trajectories are being shaped by the foundation’s scholarship and mentorship work.

Friday, August 28 — Tavern Bay Beach Club


Gate time	5:00 PM
Opening show	6:00 PM
Main show	7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Headliner: Tierra Legacy

Tierra Legacy continues the Latin R&B sounds of Tierra, the pioneering East Los Angeles Chicano band founded in 1972. Tierra achieved national fame with their unique blend of rock, pop, jazz, R&B, and salsa, producing classics including “Gonna Find Her” and “Memories.” Their hit “Together” reached number 14 on Billboard’s Hot 100, cementing Tierra’s place in American music history as the first Latino group to have four songs on the national charts simultaneously.

Following the recent passing of the band’s founders, Rudy and Steve Salas, the family made the decision to keep the music alive through Tierra Legacy. Led by David and Richard Salas, the new iteration includes original and longtime members who helped create those hit recordings, alongside two fresh lead singers. Their live shows and continued social media presence keep the band’s dynamic energy very much alive.

Their presence at Tavern Bay on Friday night is expected to bring an energy that contrasts memorably with Thursday’s guitar-forward programming. As the band puts it: “If you got the suit, we got the Zoot.”

Opening Act: The Ellis Hall Band

Ellis Hall carries one of the more impressive résumés in American soul and R&B. Known as the “Ambassador of Soul,” Hall is a musician, vocalist, songwriter, and arranger with a five-octave vocal range born in Savannah, Georgia. He demonstrated an affinity for music at an early age, practicing various instruments after receiving a prognosis of early blindness due to a congenital disease — by the age of 14, he had mastered drums, piano, bass, and vibraphone.

After relocating to California in the early 1980s, Hall joined the funk and soul institution Tower of Power, and became a highly sought-after studio musician featured on albums with John Klemmer and Kenny G. As a vocalist, his voice has appeared in several popular films including The Lion King 2, Shrek 2, and Bruce Almighty. After a chance meeting with Ray Charles in 2001, Charles signed Hall to his CrossOver Records label and became his mentor until Charles’s passing in 2004.

Across a career of 40-plus years, Ellis Hall has performed on five continents alongside artists ranging from Natalie Cole and Bobby Womack to Patti LaBelle and George Benson. His connection to Tower of Power and Herbie Hancock in particular will resonate with soul and jazz fans who know those catalogs well. What makes an Ellis Hall performance distinctive is the combination of vocal power and stage presence — this is not background music. It’s an event.

Saturday, August 29 — San Moritz Lodge, Crestline


Gate time	4:00 PM
Opening show	(see festival listings)
Main show	4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Headliner: Niki Haris with the L.A. Jazz Salon All Stars

Niki Haris brings a performance background that spans pop, soul, jazz, and stage performance at the highest levels. She is perhaps best known as the “Big Voice” behind Madonna for over 18 years — appearing in Madonna’s concert film Truth or Dare and across numerous music videos and world tours. But her jazz credentials are equally significant: she is the daughter of GRAMMY Award-nominated jazz pianist Gene Harris, and her musical DNA runs deep in the tradition.

Her collaborations over the years read like a who’s who of American music: Stanley Turrentine, Joe Sample and the Jazz Crusaders, Ray Charles, Mick Jagger, Whitney Houston, Sheryl Crow, and many others. For Saturday’s performance, Haris brings material from the Great American Songbook alongside the L.A. Jazz Salon All Stars, creating a program that bridges the intimacy of classic American jazz with the showmanship of a performer who has worked the world’s biggest stages.

The L.A. Jazz Salon All Stars is a seasoned ensemble featuring Dave Ross on bass (leader), Judd Pillot on drums, Nolan Shaheed on trumpet, and Rickey Woodard on sax — musicians who between them have worked with Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Kenny Burrell, Diana Krall, John Legend, and many others. The combination of Haris’s vocal range and stage presence with this calibre of ensemble makes Saturday night’s San Moritz performance one of the more distinctive offerings in the 2026 program.

Opening Act: Digital Audio Projekt (DAP)

Opening Saturday is the Digital Audio Projekt (DAP), a group with roots going back to the mid-1990s when bassist André Berry got a call to fill in for Louis Johnson of the R&B and funk band The Brothers Johnson for a night. Berry found a kindred musical spirit in drummer Harold Allen Jr., and the two have been playing together ever since in various configurations. In 2022, master keyboardist George Whitty introduced them to saxophonist Bruce Rubio — a perfect fit for their brand of funk — and DAP was formally born.

Berry is one of the busiest bass players in the industry, having spent a decade with David Sanborn and toured extensively with Dave Koz, Rick Braun, and Mindi Abair. Bruce Rubio is a professional saxophonist and long-time Lake Arrowhead resident with a career spanning top jazz, rock, and tribute acts. Harold Allen Jr., a native of New Orleans, has performed with Jermaine Jackson, Ivan Neville, Leo Nocentelli, Percy Sledge, Jean Knight, Harmonica Fats, Michael Haggins, and many others.

DAP has played the Blue Jay Jazz Festival for several years running and consistently delivers — accessible and danceable without sacrificing musical substance.

Why the Blue Jay Jazz Festival Is Different

A Mountain Setting Unlike Any Other

Most jazz festivals happen in cities. The Blue Jay Jazz Festival happens in the San Bernardino Mountains at roughly 5,000 feet elevation, with two of its three nights set directly on the shores of Lake Arrowhead. The experience of watching live music against that backdrop — pine trees, lake water, evening light settling into the mountains — is genuinely difficult to replicate, and it changes how the music lands.

Cool evening temperatures at this elevation mean you’re comfortable even in late August, when most of Southern California is still dealing with summer heat. Bring a layer or two — once the sun drops behind the ridgeline, the air has a quality that makes you understand why people have been escaping to these mountains for over a century.

Intimate by Design

This is not a festival where you watch performers through binoculars from a field. The venues are small enough that the music feels personal. You’re close to the stage, you’re among a crowd that’s genuinely there for the music, and there’s a social ease to the whole thing that larger festivals struggle to manufacture. If you want to talk to someone about what you just heard, you probably can.

A Genuinely Diverse Musical Range

The festival’s mission — to celebrate jazz and all its relatives — gives the programmers latitude to book acts that cover an unusually wide stylistic territory. A single weekend can move from guitar-driven rock-jazz fusion to East L.A. Latin soul to Great American Songbook standards with a jazz ensemble. That breadth is part of the appeal for both longtime jazz enthusiasts and listeners who are newer to the genre.

Rooted in Community

The Blue Jay Jazz Festival is an all-volunteer operation supported by local businesses, community donors, and the mountain communities that have been part of its story since 1991. There’s a warmth to that — a sense that this event belongs to the region rather than being imposed on it. Local sponsorships, school partnerships, and the scholarship ceremony on Thursday night all contribute to an atmosphere that feels authentic rather than transactional.

Supporting Music Education Through the Festival

The Blue Jay Jazz Foundation’s education programs are funded in large part by festival proceeds. When you buy a ticket to the Blue Jay Jazz Festival, you’re contributing to something that extends well beyond the three nights of music.

Future Generations of Jazz Program

Each year, the foundation awards scholarship grants to deserving young musicians from the mountain communities, recognizing academic and musical achievement and supporting continued music education. Excellence Awards are given in partnership with the Rotary Club of Lake Arrowhead. The Thursday night awards ceremony gives scholarship recipients a chance to perform alongside professional artists — a meaningful experience for young musicians at that stage of development.

The Adopt an Instrument Lending Program

The Adopt an Instrument program collects donated musical instruments, refurbishes them where needed, and makes them available to students who want to play but don’t have access to instruments. This kind of program has real downstream effects: students who get access to instruments are more likely to participate in school music programs, and those programs produce the next generation of working musicians — some of whom may eventually return to this same festival as performers.

Community Impact

The foundation’s work is focused specifically on the Rim of the World School District and the surrounding mountain communities. The long-term effects of sustained music education investment in a small community are significant: broader cultural engagement, stronger arts programming in schools, and a community identity shaped in part by musical tradition.

Planning Your Visit to the Blue Jay Jazz Festival

How to Get Tickets

Tickets for the 2026 festival go on sale June 1 and are available at events.ticketleap.com/events/bluejayjazz. The festival has historically sold out — particularly the lakeside Tavern Bay nights — so purchasing early is advisable. Each evening is ticketed separately, so you can attend one, two, or all three nights.

Print your tickets before arriving. Both venues use printed ticket scanning at entry.

What to Bring

For Tavern Bay nights (Thursday & Friday):

Your picnic meal and all drinks — nothing is sold on-site, so pack everything you’ll need for the evening
A cooler or insulated bag for food and beverages
A blanket, low chair, or comfortable seating (tables and chairs are provided, but personal comfort items are welcome)
A flashlight — it gets dark after sunset and the path from parking can be dim
Layers — temperatures at Lake Arrowhead drop noticeably once the sun goes down

For San Moritz night (Saturday):

No outside food or drink — food and beverages are available for purchase on-site
Light layers for the evening

For all nights:

A good camera or phone with a solid camera — the lakeside light at Tavern Bay particularly rewards photography
Comfortable shoes for walking between parking and venues

Getting There

Tavern Bay Beach Club: Located at 28399 North Shore Road, Lake Arrowhead, CA 92352. There is no parking at the venue itself — use the ALA-authorized lots in the surrounding area. Parking attendants will be on-site to direct guests. Allow extra time if you’re arriving close to gate time.

San Moritz Lodge: Located at 24640 San Moritz Drive, Crestline, CA 92325. Free parking is available in the lodge lot, with additional paid parking in surrounding areas. Level entry from the parking area makes it accessible for guests with mobility considerations.

Festival Etiquette

Arrive early enough to settle in before the opening act — the first act is often a genuine highlight, not a throwaway warmup
Support the local vendors and festival sponsors; they’re part of what makes the event possible year after year
Keep noise levels considerate during performances — the intimate venue size means conversations carry

Things to Do Near the Blue Jay Jazz Festival

Explore Lake Arrowhead

Lake Arrowhead Village is a short drive from Tavern Bay and worth an afternoon. The waterfront area has local shops, dining options, and lake views that provide a pleasant way to spend the hours before an evening concert. The lake itself offers seasonal boat tours and scenic waterfront walks.

Discover Crestline

Crestline, home to the Saturday night venue, is a quieter mountain community with its own distinct character. Lake Gregory — the lake visible from San Moritz Lodge — is a recreational destination with swimming, kayaking, and fishing. The town has local cafes and shops worth exploring before the evening show.

Outdoor Adventures in the San Bernardino Mountains

The mountains surrounding both festival venues offer considerable outdoor recreation:

Hiking: The Rim of the World Scenic Byway connects a series of trailheads, ranging from gentle forest walks to more challenging ridge hikes with views across the San Bernardino Valley
Wildlife: The mountain forests support a range of wildlife — mule deer, red-tailed hawks, and various mountain birds are common sights, particularly in the early morning hours
Photography: The combination of pine forest, lake reflections, and mountain light creates consistently rewarding shooting conditions at almost any time of day
Scenic drives: Highway 18 along the Rim of the World offers some of the most dramatic driving in Southern California, with views that extend to the desert floor on clear days

Mountain Towns Worth Exploring

Beyond Lake Arrowhead and Crestline, the broader San Bernardino Mountains have a collection of small communities — Running Springs, Big Bear, Wrightwood — each with its own personality. If you’re staying for the full festival weekend, building in a morning drive between concert nights adds a dimension to the trip that a single-day visit can’t replicate.

Where to Stay During the Blue Jay Jazz Festival

Plan Ahead — Festival Weekend Books Fast

The Blue Jay Jazz Festival draws visitors from across Southern California into a mountain region that has a finite supply of lodging. The combination of late August mountain weather and three nights of concerts means festival weekend accommodations fill up quickly. If you’re planning to attend more than one night — and the programming strongly suggests you should — booking your accommodation early is not optional advice; it’s practical necessity.

Why a Mountain Cabin Works Better Than a Hotel for Festival Weekend

There’s a structural mismatch between how festival weekends work and what a standard hotel room offers. Concerts end in the evening, and the best part of a mountain August night is sitting outside afterward — listening to the quiet, letting the music settle, maybe pouring another glass from whatever you brought to Tavern Bay. A hotel room doesn’t support that. A private cabin does.

For groups, the case is even clearer. Splitting a well-equipped cabin with friends or family gives you shared kitchen space for the picnic prep that Tavern Bay requires, room to spread out after a long evening, and the kind of privacy that lets you keep your own schedule rather than the hotel’s.

There’s also a practical logistics argument: the festival venues are spread across Lake Arrowhead and Crestline. Staying within the mountain communities means you’re within a short drive of both, which removes the pressure of navigating mountain roads late at night or commuting back down to the valley.

Stay at Wild Olive Cabins

Wild Olive Cabins is located in Running Springs, less than 20 minutes from Blue Jay, Lake Arrowhead and around 25 minutes from Crestline — close enough to make attending all three nights comfortable, far enough from the festival areas that you’ll have genuine quiet when you’re ready for it.

We have two properties available:

Wild Olive Den — A well-appointed cabin suited to couples or small groups, with the mountain comforts that make the difference between a good trip and a great one.

Wild Olive Lodge — A larger property for groups who want the full mountain retreat experience, with the space to accommodate a festival weekend properly.

Both cabins sit in the kind of mountain setting that gives the Blue Jay Jazz Festival its character — pine trees, elevation, fresh air, and enough separation from city life that the weekend actually feels like a getaway. After three nights of live music, having a proper place to come home to matters.

Running Springs sits at the crossroads of the mountain communities, making Wild Olive Cabins a natural home base for exploring Lake Arrowhead, Crestline, and the surrounding area during the days between festival nights. You’re not just booking a place to sleep — you’re booking a base of operations for the kind of mountain weekend the San Bernardino Mountains do particularly well.

Make the Most of a Mountain Music Weekend

The Blue Jay Jazz Festival works as well as it does because everything around it — the setting, the season, the scale — reinforces the experience rather than competing with it. The music is the anchor, but a three-night stay in the San Bernardino Mountains in late August has its own rewards independent of the concerts: morning hikes, afternoon drives along the Rim of the World, lakeside meals, and evenings cool enough to sit outside under the stars.

The programming for 2026 — Carl Verheyen’s guitar work Thursday, Tierra Legacy’s Latin soul Friday, Niki Haris closing it all out at San Moritz Saturday — covers enough stylistic ground that there’s something to pull virtually any music listener in. And the community that shows up for this festival year after year has its own appeal: people who love music and love these mountains, gathered around something that a volunteer organization has been quietly building since 1991.

Tickets are available here. The cabins fill up faster than the tickets. Plan accordingly.