Carolina Music Festivals is a comprehensive calendar and guide to multi-act, daylong or multiple-day music festivals in North Carolina.
Dates and other details may be estimated based on last year's festival until confirmed by festival organizers.
Through March 1 Carolina Jazz Festival - Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill festival includes public performances by touring bands, artists in residence, faculty and students in addition to workshops and master classes for students. The festival also hosts the North Carolina Regional Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center (click through above for details for high school musicians, band directors, etc.). The festival is in its 48th year in 2025.
Artists
Thursday: UNC Faculty Jazz with guest pianist Keith Brown.
Friday: The Dominican Jazz Project, UNC Jazz Combos with guest pianist Keith Brown.
Saturday: UNC Jazz Band, with Keith Brown, Sandy Gabriel, Ramon Vazquez, Guy Frometa, David Almengod; Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival with Keith Brown.
Festival site: UNC-Chapel Hill (map); Thursday at Sharp 9 Gallery in Durham
Thursday: 7 p.m.
Friday: UNC Jazz Combos 4 p.m., Dominican Jazz Project 7 p.m.
Saturday: Essentially Ellington 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; UNC Jazz Band 4:15 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Through March 9 North Carolina HIP Music Festival - Triangle
Mallarmé Music, a Triangle chamber music group, presents a series of "historically informed performances" over the course of 16 shows featuring artists performing music from 1500 to the present on period instruments at venues throughout the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area.
Artists
Angels in the Architecture, Asheville Baroque, Baroque and Beyond, Duo Cantabile, Forgotten Clefs, Gut Instinct Chamber Music Project, Mallarmé Music, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, North Carolina Master Chorale and Youth Choir, Raleigh Camerata, Sasa (formerly El Fuego), UNC Baroque Ensemble.
Festival site: Multiple venues in Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Hillsborough
Times vary, afternoon and evening shows
HIPster all-show pass: $130. Individual shows from $10 to $30, some free.
Return to the Carolina Music Festivals full-year calendar - home page.
Go to February Music Festivals // Go to April Music Festivals