The inaugural LA Jazz Festival will remain dark Saturday after organizers canceled the event, citing unexpected public safety and municipal permitting costs.

On Friday, festival founder and CEO Martin Ludlow announced the festival would be postponed until 2027.

“Due to significant, unanticipated last-minute public safety and municipal costs associated with the final permitting of the On The Beach Festival, we have reached the decision to unfortunately postpone this year’s inaugural LA Jazz Festival,” Ludlow said in a statement. “Although this decision was an extremely difficult one to reach, our commitment to the audiences and artists participating in the festival is to have a first-class experience worthy of the great legacy of Jazz and our great city.”

Ludlow said organizers were encouraged by the response from performers, fans and sponsors and remained committed to staging the festival in 2027.

“We are so grateful to all the artists — from our headliners to our musicians in the parks, many of whom went above and beyond to make this affordable to the community,” Ludlow said. “All current ticket holders for LA Jazz Festival events will be refunded in full within 30 days. We apologize deeply for this situation and vow to make this right over time.”

The festival had advertised performances by John Legend, Janelle MonÃ¡e, Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton, Charlie Wilson, Raphael Saadiq, Original Koffee, Terrace Martin, Poncho Sanchez, Joey Alexander, Big Freedia and other artists during events scheduled throughout August.

Festival organizers initially canceled only the opening events before confirming Friday that the entire inaugural festival would be postponed until 2027. They announced an updated schedule July 31 that consolidated programming around the event’s marquee “Jazz on the Beach” concerts set for Aug. 22-23 at Dockweiler Beach.

“The energy and anticipation that has been building for this inaugural LA Jazz Festival has been beyond exciting,” Ludlow said when announcing the revised schedule. “With the goal of making every facet of the festival the ultimate fan experience, we are consolidating several of our activities leading up to our crown jewel event, the Jazz on the Beach concert weekend.”

Festival organizers had billed the inaugural event as a landmark cultural celebration they hoped would become one of the world’s largest international jazz festivals. The festival was promoted as a tourism and economic development initiative designed to celebrate jazz while supporting minority- and women-owned businesses.

Artists scheduled to perform at canceled events were notified earlier this week that portions of the festival had been postponed because of permitting and production challenges, according to media reports.

One performer said musicians were not treated with respect in the way the events were canceled.

“I am deeply disappointed by the manner in which the cancellation of portions of the inaugural Los Angeles Jazz Festival was handled — particularly the lack of communication with musicians who had contracted, prepared and showed up ready to perform,” said TorrÃ©nce Brannon-Reese, whose Uptown New Orleans Brass Band wasn’t notified that an opening ceremony at City Hall was canceled before the group showed up.

“I respectfully call upon the organizers of the Los Angeles Jazz Festival to publicly explain what happened, address their contractual commitments to affected artists and begin repairing the trust that has been damaged,” Brannon-Reese said.

“Jazz was born from struggle, resilience and community,” he said. “The musicians who carry that cultural legacy deserve to be treated accordingly.”

MyNewsLA.com

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