Columbus Jazz & Rib Fest

The festival occupies West Bank Park and Bicentennial Park on the riverfront, with several stages running simultaneously and no admission charge. It pairs a full jazz program with a barbecue competition, which is where the name comes from and which accounts for much of the crowd, but the music is booked as jazz rather than as background to the food.

Because it is a municipal parks department event rather than a nonprofit or a promoter, the lineup tends to mix nationally touring artists with Columbus and Ohio bands across the weekend, and the whole site stays open and walkable along the river. Its late-July slot puts it in the middle of the Ohio summer festival calendar, a week or two ahead of Toledo's Glass City JazzFest.