By Connie Shaver, TwinCitiesJazzFestival.com

The Twin Cities Jazz Festival is celebrating its 15th year and has grown to be one of the largest jazz events in the Midwest. Situated in the lush, urban green space of Mears Park in the heart of Lowertown Saint Paul, this celebration of jazz has been ranked as the “Best Festival in the Twin Cities” by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, StarTribune and City Pages. More than 30,000 attendees to this free weekend event enjoy an ear-pleasing variety of music from local performers to Grammy Award winners making it an ideal music escape.

Jazz Festival 2013 will be held from Thursday, June 27 to Saturday, June 29 and will feature music on three stages showcasing a wide variety of jazz. Admission to the festival in the park is free while some clubs may have a small cover charge. The music in Mears Park will run from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday. Area clubs will feature jazz musicians each evening until closing time.

Confirmed artists for this year’s Jazz Festival are Cyrus Chestnut, Kenny Werner, Matt Slocum and Walter Smith III.  The full schedule will be posted next month at TwinCitiesJazzFestival.com. Past performers to the Jazz Festival has been like a who’s who of jazz: Delfeayo Marsalis, The Bad Plus, Chick Corea, Esperanza Spalding, Gary Burton, Dave Brubeck, Deodato and many more internationally known jazz all-stars. Circle your calendar for the last weekend of June for the Midwest’s premier music extravaganza, the 15th annual Twin Cities Jazz Festival.