‘Jazz In The Gardens’ Music Festival Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving To South Florida

If there is any question of where tens of thousands of people were over the weekend of March 8, the answer is simple: Miami Gardens’ 18th Annual Jazz in the Gardens Festival. The ninth largest city in the United States continues to produce one of its longest running music festivals; and as result unites multiple generations of music lovers, provides business opportunities for a spectrum of entrepreneurs and stimulates the economic growth not only for Miami Gardens but surrounding communities as well through an uptick in services, including food, transportation and hospitality. BLACK ENTERPRISE spoke with Mayor Rodney Harris, who has been instrumental in keeping the festival going strong for the city of Miami Gardens through its partnership with the Black Promoters Collective and thoughtful curation. Mayor Harris gave an inside purview of how Jazz in the Garden Music Festival outdoes itself year-over-year. 

“Just look at the lineup. The lineup is incredible,” Mayor Harris told BE. 

“To try to match it from last year, we do surveys with the people who come out to the festival. We ask them who [they] would like to see so we can bring them on next year.”

The Mayor’s office is hands-on with planning and starts pretty quickly to stay ahead of the curve, paying careful attention to the ever-shifting demographic of festival goers. 

“Once we compile all that information—and it’ll be right after this concert is over—we’ll start probably Monday or Tuesday,” Harris said. 

“We sit down with Black Promoters Collective and other organizations and our staff, and we try to figure out what genres are really purchasing the tickets, what they would like to hear. In the past, we had older groups, but in order to grow the music festival, we had to try to get a little bit young.”

In recent years, Jazz in the Gardens has entertained over 41,000 people at a single event, ranging from ages 27 through 48,” Harris confirmed. Acts like Maxwell, Babyface, Jeezy,  Trick & Trina, Fantasia, and others appeal to the broad spectrum of attendees. This year’s festival included Lauryn Hill, Doechii, Wyclef, Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick, Ja Rule, Beenie Man, Toni Braxton, and Remy Ma, who all lived up to bringing the house down and captivating an audience that represented the multigenerational crowd. The performances are priceless and hold cultural and economic weight for the Southern Miami region. 

“This has an economic impact for the entire South Florida,” Mayor Harris told BE. 

“Miami Gardens benefits from it, but it’s from the entire South: Palm Beach down to Homestead and small restaurants and small businesses and even those big restaurants reap the benefits of what we’re doing with Jazz in the Garden.”

Harris continued: “It’s a major event, and we get support from our county commissioners, our county mayors, and we get support from everybody to ensure that we can continue with this music festival. We’re, just excited that people have bought into it … it’s something that we’re doing right as a city and as a business.”

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