Jazz in the Gardens isn’t just a music festival. It’s a window into the soul of a city
Donovan Thompson figures he probably won’t sleep Friday night.
A mix of nerves and excitement will likely keep his brain racing — even if the “Kingston Delight” restaurateur needs to be up at 5 a.m. Saturday to finish setting up his booth at Jazz in the Gardens. The festival is so important to Thompson that he says his last two weeks have been spent seasoning roughly 3,200 pounds of chicken, 200 pounds of oxtail and 300 pounds of fish.
“It puts your business out there,” Thompson, a vendor at Jazz in the Gardens since 2007, said between filling propane tanks and stockpiling charcoal for the festival. “Nothing was happening [because of the pandemic]. Now, any little event will be packed because people can’t wait to go outside.”
Jazz in the Gardens, one of Miami Gardens’ premier tourist attractions, will return this weekend to Hard Rock Stadium after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a two-year layoff. Boasting a lineup that includes The Isley Brothers, Mary J. Blige and Rick Ross, the two-day festival will provide an economic boon through showcasing Florida’s largest primarily Black city.
“Jazz in the Gardens is about that family atmosphere,” Ross, who grew up in the Miami Gardens neighborhood of Carol City, told the Miami Herald. Although this will be his first time performing at the festival, he says he has paid special attention to how the brand has grown to something that “has to be on calendars now.”
That wasn’t always the case. Founded in 2003, Miami Gardens was in its infancy when then-Mayor Shirley Gibson came up with the concept of a city-run music festival. Jazz in the Gardens would be born in 2006 and, although the city didn’t recoup its costs for the first few shows, Gibson accomplished her main goal: put Miami Gardens on the map.
“It was really to give us an identity and to have people know who we were,” said Gibson, the city’s first mayor, adding that the festival has been “an exceptional brand for the city.”
Over time, that identity became more refined. Unlike Dolphins games, Rolling Loud or other events held at Hard Rock Stadium, Jazz in the Gardens attracts a more mature crowd. Past lineups, which have included the O’Jays, Lionel Richie, Chaka Khan and Jill Scott, are reminiscent of backyard summer barbecue playlists.
Music and nostalgia will forever go hand-in-hand yet there’s a specific soulfulness attached to these type of artists, something that Gibson’s successor Oliver Gilbert says he emphasized to sponsors and listeners during his press tours in New York City and Atlanta. In turn, the festival transformed into an event that produced roughly $12 million in 2019.
“We’re selling a feeling,” said Gilbert, now the Miami-Dade commissioner of District 1, which includes Miami Gardens. “You’re going to come and sing and dance and party with friends and strangers. You’re going to leave everything behind. This weekend is about you having fun.”
Just as the festival was seemingly peaking, COVID-19 struck. Miami Gardens lost “a couple million” in production and advertising costs after Gilbert had to cancel the festival just days before its 2020 start, the former mayor said. The two-year hiatus, however, only created further excitement around the event: The festival itself is nearly sold out while all tickets for Friday’s Women’s Impact Luncheon are gone.
“It’s hard to quantify what the feeling of community is until you don’t have it,” said Gilbert.
Despite its growth, the festival remains rooted in Black South Florida. Local restaurants like Thompson’s Kingston Delight are staple vendors. Jobs are created. Even Miami-based acts like Deep Fried Funk Band reap the benefits.
Jody Hill, the band’s drummer and founding member, estimated the group’s solicitations more than doubled after their first Jazz in the Gardens performance in 2012.
“We were getting calls ‘Hey! We saw you at Jazz in the Gardens and loved what we heard!’ or ‘Hey! I want you guys to play at my wedding,’ ” Hill said.
Similarly, Thompson, too, has gotten exposure from being at Jazz in the Gardens. He guessed that Kingston Delight served anywhere between 1,500-2,000 people per day at past events.
“Jamaican food was on the back-burner but now I see all kinds of people come into the restaurant,” Thompson added.
That relationship with local entrepreneurs is one of the aspects that make Jazz in the Gardens such a critical event, said Connie Kinnard, a vice president at the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“Jazz in the Gardens particularly does a great job connecting with entrepreneurs, small businesses, Black businesses that can be a part of the larger festival,” said Kinnard. This helps to “include” a wider range of businesses.
It is this type of growth that ultimately gave Ross a new sense of pride about his beloved Miami Gardens. Although his hometown looks a lot different than when he was growing up, Ross is willing to embrace the change — even more so because the city’s soul has stayed the same.
“If you somebody who want to be fascinated by the skyline, the ocean, the boats, that’s easy,” said Ross. “But if you want to get that real soulfulness, that down-home realness, come to my city. Come to Miami Gardens.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
