Inner West Jazz Fest Returns

Sydney’s grassroots jazz and improvised music event, the Inner West Jazz Fest, returns this August with two nights of cutting-edge performances at the Annandale Creative Arts Centre. Now in its third year, the Inner West Jazz Fest (IWJF2025) presents a bold and generationally diverse snapshot of Australia’s creative music scene, with ten original performances across two stages.

The IWJF’s opening act will be Heaps Grass, an experimental, improvising folk trio comprising Ebony Tait, Lachie Mills and Jack Rosenzweig. This year’s program is highlighting a major new collaboration between acclaimed vocalist Leah Berry and legendary pianist Mike Nock, who will premiere Nock’s instrumental works with lyrics, offering an entirely new perspective on his storied compositional output.

Alongside this, Jack Stoneham brings his newest project Walk, exploring complex improvisational forms with a deeply personal edge, while Laurence Pike presents the debut of Hallucinations, an expansive work that fuses rhythm, electronics and future-facing jazz aesthetics.

Composer and pianist Novak Manojlovic returns with The Ceremony, a ritualistic blend of free improvisation and contemporary composition. Melbourne’s Helen Svoboda, known for her haunting combination of voice and double bass, will perform a solo set, while Miroslav Bukovsky a towering figure in Australian jazz, appears with a string trio for a rare chamber-style performance.

Audiences will also witness the Sydney debut of Dogs of Pleasure, a fiercely energetic duo from Tasmania whose visceral performances blur the line between form and chaos.

WJF is a rare example of a festival driven entirely by musicians and volunteers, without public funding or institutional support. Founded by curators Laurence Pike and Clayton Thomas, and produced by the team behind Johnston Street Jazz, the event is a celebration of musical risk, community energy, and the possibilities of collaboration. Its ethos is clear: place creativity, integrity and experimentation at the centre and let the music speak for itself.

Full program and tickets are available at www.innerwestjazzfest.org Capacity is limited and early booking is recommended.