The Board of Directors of the 29th Annual Natchitoches Jazz/R&B Festival has announced next year’s festival will be held May 15 and 16, 2026, on the downtown riverbank. The featured headliners have a distinctive Country flavor and include platinum selling Country music superstar, Joe Nichols, along with American Idol finalist and rising country star, Louisiana native, John Foster.
Multi-platinum artist, Joe Nichols, is one of Country Music’s most lauded recording artists. A 21st Century Traditionalist, Nichols is an artist who is both timely and timeless, one who has racked up more than two billion cumulative audio streams/views, including a half-dozen number one singles and 10 Top Ten hits with a sound that blurs the boundaries between Country Music past and present.
It’s an approach that has earned Nichols three Grammy nominations, a CMA Award, and an ACM Trophy and multiple gold and platinum certified records.
Foster, a rising young performer from Addis, Louisiana, was first runner up on the most recent season of American Idol and drew praise from judges Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie. After performing for millions of viewers every week on the popular program, Foster has hit the ground running and parlayed his American Idol success into “sold out” concerts around the country, including more than half a dozen appearances on the Grand Old Opry.
In his brief career, Foster has already performed with luminaries such as the aforementioned Underwood, Bryan, and Richie, and has since shared the stage with many other artists including Elton John!
According to Entertainment Chairman, Daniel Page, although this year’s headliners have a definite Country flavor, the festival will continue to feature many different types and genres of music, such as Rock, Soul, Gospel, and yes, Jazz and R&B.
“We are super excited to have been able to get Joe and John as our headliners this year,” Page said.
“Each year we book our headliners based on several factors, we try to choose artists that the concert-going public in our area want to see and of course, we are always limited by artist availability and our budget. We feel we’ve hit a home run this year with these two.”
The festival will be announcing additional performers in coming weeks including two tribute acts which will be appearing on traditional Friday “Tribute to Legends” night.
The Festival Board has also announced that discounted tickets are on sale just in time for the holidays.
“The gift of music is the perfect Christmas gift for all ages,” said Board Member, Lisa Prudhomme, “plus you’ll never be able to buy your tickets any cheaper than you can right now.” For early information and ticket prices, go to www.natchjazzfest.com.
