Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Detroit International Jazz Festival is a jazz music festival held each year over Labor Day Weekend in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. Until 2000, it was known as the Detroit-Montreux Jazz Festival. The festival again changed names in 2005, becoming the Detroit International Jazz Festival after Ford removed its sponsorship. Since then, the festival has struggled to remain free of charge.
Since the Festival has become its own non-profit organization under the leadership of Gretchen Carhartt Valade and Executive Director Terri Pontremoli it has, in fact, grown exponentially and is now America's largest, free Jazz Festival. Jazz Times noted that the Detroit International Jazz Festival is one of the top five festivals in North America, in a 2007 Readers' Poll.
Corporations including Chase, Absopure, Carhartt Clothing Company, MGM Grand Detroit Casino-Hotel, Future Brands, Budweiser, MotorCity Casino-Hotel, Mack Avenue Records, Big Boy, Glaxo Smith Kline, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi, Starbucks Coffee Company, Art Van, Greektown Casino and institutions such as Wayne State University have become key partners in its growth.

