Women’s Jazz Festival Eyes Cathedral City

The Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival seeks new venue in Cathedral City

CATHEDRAL CITY — This community is quickly becoming the go-to location for special events, whether it be a Lipstick Station, a Fun-O-Rama, yoga, or the SoCal Car and Dog Show. Now The Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival is eyeing the community, specifically The Cathedral City Community Amphitheater, for its event.

Organizers are asking the City Council this week to approve a Special Use Permit authorizing the Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival on November 12-13, 2022. Expected attendance would be approximately 900 per day between  8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

PSWJF has been seeking a new venue that allows them to lock-in an exact date annually. Over the years, their main location has been the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs. The event wants to grow this festival and potentially include art exhibits as
well. The Cathedral City Community Amphitheater is ideal for growth and its convenient location near Highway 111 along with ample parking, according to a staff report.

The Cathedral City Public Arts Commission (CCPAC) in October voted unanimously to sponsor the festival and authorize, upon council approval, $6,000 from the Public Arts Fund.

With a move to Cathedral City, the organizers have stated that they would change the festival name to “The Greater Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival.”

By way of background that Communications Manager Chris Parman compiled, The Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival (PSWJF) was founded in 2013 by Gail Christian and her partner, Lucy DeBardelaben. This duo has been putting on music events for more than a decade under the listing of L&G Events. Prior to the PSWJF, they had also produced Sisterfire Festival in Washington D.C. in the mid-1980s, worked on the Michigan’s Women’s Festival, and more recently, the Palm
Springs Women’s Week.

The PSWJF brings female jazz performers of the highest caliber to the Palm Springs area for a multi-day, multi-event walking jazz tour of Palm Springs. They launched this festival to attract jazz lovers from all over the world to celebrate this incredible genre performed by an all-star line-up of female musicians. Artists who have performed at the festival include chart toppers and award winners like Diane Schuur, Nona Hendryx, Terri Lyne Carrington, Patrice Rushen, Mimi Jones, Ann Hampton Callaway, Judith Hill and many more.

The PSWJF is controlled and operated by the non-profit, the Palm Springs Women’s Jazz and Blues Association. It exists to preserve and foster an appreciation of jazz and blues music and to support female jazz and blues musicians who traditionally struggle for recognition and employment. The festival includes concerts, exhibits, presentations, films and other events that promote an understanding and enjoyment of the work of women artists.