All activities / Music & Culture Festivals / Saint-Louis
Music & Culture Festivals in Saint-Louis
Festival International de Jazz de Saint-Louis
Senegal's first colonial capital, Saint-Louis sits on a narrow island where the Senegal River meets the Atlantic, a UNESCO World Heritage town of faded Creole facades, iron balconies and the Faidherbe Bridge, and the home of West Africa's leading jazz festival.
Run by Association Saint-Louis Jazz, with published dates and a real program.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
The Festival International de Jazz de Saint-Louis is the oldest and most important jazz festival in West Africa, held every May in the UNESCO-listed island town where the Senegal River meets the sea. Founded in 1993, it draws crowds of around thirty thousand to the open-air main stage on Place Baya and to a fringe of off concerts, jam sessions and street parades that fill the colonial-era streets for five nights. The programme mixes international jazz names with Senegalese and wider West African artists, and the setting, an island of ochre facades and iron balconies below the Faidherbe Bridge, is as much the draw as the line-up. In 2026 it reaches its thirty-fourth edition.
Best months
The festival runs for about five nights in mid-May each year, centred on Place Baya with off concerts scattered across the island. May in Saint-Louis is hot and dry ahead of the summer rains, so light clothing and sun cover help. Main-stage tickets and passes sell through the festival, while the off programme and street sessions are largely free.
Getting there & around
Saint-Louis is about four hours north of Dakar by road or a short domestic flight, and the festival's venues are walkable on the island. Rooms in the historic hotels and guesthouses fill up months ahead for the festival weekend, so book early. The main stage on Place Baya is a short walk from the Faidherbe Bridge and the island's guesthouses.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Saint-Louis Jazz
OrganizerThe Association Saint-Louis Jazz has organised the Festival International de Jazz de Saint-Louis since 1993, building it into West Africa's leading jazz event. Each May it programmes five nights on the open-air main stage at Place Baya plus a fringe of off concerts and jam sessions across the UNESCO-listed island, drawing around thirty thousand people and more than twenty international and African artists. The association runs the festival's off programme with the Institut Francais.