Firenze Jazz Festival 2026: the Tenth Edition Opens Its New Main Stage at the Scuderie Reali
The Firenze Jazz Festival returns from September 5 to 13, 2026, for its tenth edition, and unveils its new Main Stage in the Garden of the Scuderie Reali, at Piazzale di Porta Romana, a space granted by the Gallerie degli Uffizi. This year’s edition, produced in partnership with the City of Florence and the FJF organizers, is set to mark a new stage in the event’s growth.
From September 11 to 13, the new area will host the heart of the festival’s program: a green space of more than six hectares in the heart of the Oltrarno, created in the years when Florence was Italy’s capital and historically tied to the complex that housed the horses, carriages, and staff of Palazzo Pitti. A place of great historical and scenic value that the festival is passing through for the first time, confirming its vocation to explore new corners of the city and open new cultural and musical paths.
Here the stage will host, in turn, Alborosie & Shengen Clan, DJ Gruff, Casino Royale, C’mon Tigre, Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld, Pellegrino, Altea, and Meraz. Three days spanning reggae, hip hop, electronica, jazz, singer-songwriter fare, avant-garde, and club culture — one of the main new features of the 2026 edition.
The Main Stage will be hosted by the FJF’s new presenters, Ilaria Fratoni and Francesca Basso. An actress and TV host, a graduate of the Scuola del Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Ilaria Fratoni has hosted major international events in both Italian and English, including Eurovision Village, Milano Cortina 2026, Focus Live, and the Nitto ATP Finals. Today she fronts the Mama Planet Show on London ONE Radio. A curious, versatile, and sparkling performer, Francesca Basso studied stage and screen acting in Turin, rounding out her training with dance and singing classes. She is also the author and star of the Pillole di Fuori Campo, short videos on cult-film soundtracks that topped 130,000 views within days.
This year also brings back the “Wine Talks – Conversations around a Glass,” organized and promoted by the Consorzio Chianti Rufina and focused on the history and culture of wine. The FJF26 graphic artwork is by Guido Bagini (Turin, 1970), an artist trained at the Accademia Albertina and active between Italy, the United States, Berlin, and Paris. His works are held in museums, foundations, and private collections around the world.
The program on the FJF26 Main Stage
At the Garden of the Scuderie Reali in Porta Romana, the program kicks off on Friday, September 11, with DJ Gruff and Alborosie & Shengen Clan. A pioneer of Italian hip hop, DJ Gruff is a turntablist, producer, rapper, and central figure in European urban culture. Since the 1980s he has helped define Italian rap through projects like Sangue Misto, Radical Stuff, Isola Posse All Stars, and Casino Royale.
At the Firenze Jazz Festival he presents “O tutto o niente,” a 1999 album now considered a milestone of Italian hip hop, performed live in a new guise with Lauryyn, Beatrice Dellacasa, and Gavino Murgia. The night will close with a DJ set of his own.
Alongside him comes Alborosie & Shengen Clan. One of the most authoritative figures in international reggae, Alborosie has built a career on the meeting of Jamaican roots, dub, dancehall, and sonic experimentation. After his beginnings with the Reggae National Tickets and his move to Kingston in 2001, he became one of the most respected European artists on the world reggae scene. On stage he’ll be joined by the Shengen Clan, the band that has backed his live work for years.
On Saturday, September 12, the festival continues with Altea, Pellegrino, and Casino Royale. Between electronica, intimate songwriting, and Mediterranean echoes, Altea is one of the most interesting voices on the new Italian scene. Born in Salento and raised between the tradition of the Taranta and meditative practice, she has developed a personal language in which fragility and strength coexist. At the FJF she presents her new EP “Nessuna,” released by Sugar Music, accompanied by Valerio Fatalò and Ben Romano.
The same evening brings Pellegrino with “Dance Rituals.” A producer, DJ, and founder of the label Early Sounds Recordings, Pellegrino is among the most original architects of the new Neapolitan scene.
With his “Napoliterranean Sound,” he blends disco, funk, jazz, italo music, and Mediterranean echoes, turning dance into a collective ritual.
Saturday, September 12, will also be the turn of Casino Royale with their “Sempre più vicini Reloaded” tour. For nearly forty years the band has moved through ska, reggae, electronica, trip-hop, and urban rock, standing as one of the most innovative experiences in Italian music.
At the Firenze Jazz Festival they celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their landmark 1995 album, revisiting its tracks in a new sonic guise.
Sunday, September 13, the Main Stage hosts Meraz, Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld, and C’mon Tigre. Meraz is an experimental jazz quartet formed in 2021 from the meeting of Mattia Hagge, Matteo Zecchi, Luca Giachi, and Tancredi Lo Cigno. The group explores a modern, outside-the-box jazz in which melodies, structures, and improvisation coexist with odd meters, synthesizers, and progressive influences.
Next comes the encounter between Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld, one of the most fascinating partnerships in contemporary European music. The Italian composer and the historic voice of Einstürzende Neubauten continue, with “Christian & Mauro,” a search that spans electronica, strings, spoken word, chamber music, and avant-garde, giving life to an intense, cinematic concert.
Closing out the Main Stage are C’mon Tigre with their “Lumina” tour. Between jazz, afro-jazz, electronica, funk, hip hop, and cinematic overtones, the collective opens a new phase of its musical research, putting electronica at the center as a creative language in dialogue with acoustic instruments and sonic traditions from all over the world.
The 2026 live show takes shape as a contemporary ritual where listening and dancing coexist (Main Stage doors at 7:00 p.m.).
At the festival’s other venues
At Villa Bardini, EMEM brings together Simone Graziano, Francesco Ponticelli, and Marco Frattini in a trio with an essential, strongly distinctive language, on Saturday, September 5, at 7:00 p.m. Between composition and improvisation, the group works on simple forms, emotional tension, and repeated rhythms.
Next, at 9:00 p.m., Tandem by Fabrizio Bosso and Julian Oliver Mazzariello: a project born of a twenty-year friendship and a shared passion for borderless music, the duo moves through standards, original pieces, and international themes, building an intimate, essential concert each time.
Great Italian and international jazz returns the following day at Villa Bardini as well. On Sunday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m., Francesco Maccianti, Ares Tavolazzi, and Roberto Gatto reunite as a trio, renewing a long musical history made of technique, feeling, and expressive freedom. At the heart of the concert is also their new record, Playing Standards, released in late 2025 by the Japanese label Terasima Records. Next, at 9:00 p.m., Villa Bardini will host the trio of Iacopo Teolis with Shai Maestro and Joe Sanders.
The original repertoire, composed by Teolis and inspired by Mark Rothko’s series The Seagram Murals, weaves melody, harmony, and rhythm into a compact, personal, and strongly evocative material.
RITUAL by Antonio Marotta arrives on Monday, September 7, at 9:30 p.m. at hu Firenze Certosa camping in town. A musician, performer, and handcrafted-drum maker, Marotta weaves the musical tradition of Southern Italy, percussion, voice, live electronics, and looping, turning the Mediterranean sonic heritage into a contemporary rite suspended between ancestral memory and club culture. Free admission.
The crossover of Accordi Disaccordi — between gypsy jazz, Mediterranean sounds, Latin rhythms, rock, and electronica — will instead take the spotlight at the Vip’s Bar on Tuesday, September 8, at 6:30 p.m. Active since 2012 and with over 1,000 concerts to their name, the trio has played international stages and festivals, from Umbria Jazz to the Blue Note, and toured Europe, the United States, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. Free admission.
Among this edition’s new features is also a new venue in the south of the city: hu Firenze Camping in Town. Here, on Tuesday, September 8, at 9:30 p.m., The Hot Dogs arrive with a high-energy show dedicated to the great tradition of American Black music. The group brings together musicians from projects like The Bluebeaters, Africa Unite, and Statuto, with a repertoire spanning rhythm & blues, soul, funk, and rock’n’roll.
Francesco Cangi presents his musical universe — between jazz, pop rock, instrumental nu jazz, and electronic funk — on Wednesday, September 9, at 6:30 p.m. at Rifrullo Firenze, another FJF newcomer. A Florentine trombonist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, he has worked with Italian and international artists such as Elisa, Ultimo, Roy Paci, Irene Grandi, Arisa, Fabrizio Bosso, Nico Gori, and Billy Cobham. Free admission.
The Free Shots, a Genoese band blending contemporary pop, swing, and electronica, arrive on Wednesday, September 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Terrazza Forte Belvedere, in partnership with Fondazione MUS.E – Forte in Musica. Since 2014 the group has built a recognizable language, winning over audiences abroad as well and appearing at festivals like JazzMi, the Andersen Festival, the Royal Swing Fest, the Goa Boa Festival, and the Milan Triennale.
Finally, Sara Gioielli presents her path across jazz, pop, electronica, and songwriting on Thursday, September 10, at 9:00 p.m. at the Conventino Caffè Letterario, Arte e Artigianato. A Neapolitan singer-songwriter, producer, and musician, after a long training between the Teatro San Carlo and the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory, she has worked with La Niña and Liberato and is releasing her debut album, Gioielli Neri, for peermusic ITALY. Free admission.
To stay up to date on all the news and the festival program, the go-to sources are the official site www.firenzejazzfestival.it and the social channels www.facebook.com/firenzejazzfestival and www.instagram.com/firenze_jazzfestival
