![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0025396f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMartin Farrelly said he thinks ‘the whole city really just goes for it’<\/p>\n
Over 100,000 music fans are set to descend on Cork city for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival this weekend.<\/p>\n
This year, the festival will feature over 500 musicians from across Ireland and the world, performing across 100 events in 80 venues.<\/p>\n
Now in its 48th year, the five-day festival is the biggest on Cork’s cultural calendar and runs from Thursday to Bank Holiday Monday, 26 October<\/p>\n
The event is expected to bring in almost \u20ac45 million to the city’s economy.<\/p>\n
A popular headline act this year is Luke Thomas and the Swing Cats, who are set to play two shows at the Everyman Theatre on Saturday 24 October.<\/p>\n
Mr Thomas, who described his band\u2019s musical style as “Vintage Pop”, said returning to the festival “means everything” to him.<\/p>\n
He said: “This is the forty-eighth year of Cork Jazz Festival and in that time, it\u2019s become so diverse in the artists that come here to play.<\/p>\n
“It’s the magic of walking down any of the streets in Cork and maybe discovering a new act or a new sound.<\/p>\n
“Your new favourite act could be playing around the corner in any of the pubs around.<\/p>\n
“So it’s really special.”<\/p>\n
He added that “if you do come here, you are going to discover your new favourite act.<\/p>\n
“I guarantee it.”<\/p>\n
\nMartin Farrelly said he thinks ‘the whole city really just goes for it’<\/p>\n
Another mainstay of the festival, TBL8 Brass, first played at the jazz festival in 2019.<\/p>\n
Martin Farrelly, who plays trombone with TBL8, said the festival is easily the band\u2019s “favourite weekend of the year”.<\/p>\n
“We’ll be popping up different places at different stages across the weekend whether that be in different venues or just on the street,” he said, adding “that really is the jazz buzz”.<\/p>\n
“It’s probably my favourite weekend of the year. It’s also our busiest weekend of the year,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Farrelly said he thinks “the whole city really just goes for it”.<\/p>\n
“No matter where you walk in – from a pub to a takeaway – you\u2019ll hear jazz music,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s stuff on all the time,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Farelly said: “It’s really mixed.<\/p>\n
“I know it’s the jazz, but it’s sort of under the umbrella of jazz.<\/p>\n
“You get hip hop, you get African music, soul music, bebop.<\/p>\n
“You get loads of different things here.<\/p>\n
“There’s something for everyone.”<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/00253970-614.jpg\"\/)
\nFestival Chairperson Fiona Collins said ‘we get to showcase Cork over the weekend’<\/p>\n
The festival was first established in 1978 by Jim Mountjoy in the Metropole Hotel.<\/p>\n
Festival Chairperson Fiona Collins said that while Cork Jazz Festival is all about the music, it means so much to local businesses across Co Cork.<\/p>\n
“There’s a huge spend over the weekend. It’s estimated to be around 40 million, which we love,” she said.<\/p>\n
She added: “And to just bring so many visitors into the city, we get to showcase Cork over the weekend.<\/p>\n
“And they get to come and experience a great city.”<\/p>\n
Cork Airport is also expecting 58,000 passengers this October Bank Holiday weekend, tens of thousands of which are made up of festival-goers who will landon Leeside for the Cork Jazz Festival.<\/p>\n
And with live jazz performances taking place across their terminals over the weekend, Cork Airport Managing Director Niall MacCarthy said the festival remains at the top of their artistic agenda.<\/p>\n
He said this weekend “is one of the highlights of the year for us all here at the airport”.<\/p>\n
Mr MacCarthy said: “It\u2019s an event that brings so much to our city and county, with some of the world\u2019s most talented jazz performers, the craic around the city streets and a great boost to the local economy.<\/p>\n
“And of course, our passengers will get to sample the jazz as soon as they touch down at Cork Airport over the coming days.”<\/p>\n
In addition to ticketed shows, the free Guinness music trail will also offer some events in 70 venues across the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 100,000 music fans are set to descend on Cork city for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-663407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}