Ubud Village Jazz Festival 2026: Two Nights of World-Class Music in the Rice Fields
Ubud does a lot of things well, but there’s one weekend a year when it does something genuinely unusual: it fills a riverside hotel garden with jazz musicians from three different continents and lets them play into the night. That weekend is tomorrow and the day after.
The Ubud Village Jazz Festival returns for its 13th year on August 7 and 8, 2026, at Sthala Ubud Bali, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel. Across the two nights there are 15 performances, around 100 musicians, and three separate stages, which is a lot of music for a festival that has never once tried to be the loudest thing on the island.
Short version: if you’re in Bali this weekend and you like live music even a little, this is worth building a Friday or Saturday around.
Thirteen Years Is a Long Time for a Bali Festival
Music festivals arrive in Bali fairly regularly, run for a season or two, and quietly disappear. Ubud Village Jazz Festival has gone the other way, and the reason is fairly simple: it never tried to become a beach-club spectacle. It stayed a jazz festival, in Ubud, at a scale where you can actually stand close enough to see a drummer’s hands. Thirteen editions later, that restraint looks less like modesty and more like strategy.
Who’s Actually Playing
The lineup is genuinely international rather than international-sounding. Italian drummer Simone Prattico performs alongside Indonesian musicians Sri Hanuraga on piano and Kevin Yosua on bass. The Dutch group Jade & Paperstock, led by guitarist Jadi Peperzak, is itself a small United Nations: Indonesian pianist Kasyfi Kalyasyena, Nepalese bassist Sulav Maharjan, and Dutch drummer Rafael Slors. France sends Watchdog, with Anne Quillier on keyboards and Pierre Horckmans on clarinet, playing the kind of set that moves between written composition and open improvisation without making a fuss about it.
What’s worth noticing across all three is how many of these bands are mixed nationalities rather than visiting acts. That’s been the festival’s quiet signature for years.
Three Stages, and Why That Matters
Fifteen performances across three stages over two evenings means you’re not locked into a single running order. You can drift, catch half a set, follow the sound that’s pulling you, and end up somewhere you didn’t plan. For a festival of this size, that’s the whole appeal, and it’s the opposite of standing in one enormous crowd waiting ninety minutes for a headliner.
Planning the Trip Up From the South
Ubud sits inland, north-east of Seminyak, and the road slows down noticeably through the late afternoon, which is exactly when you’d be heading up. Leave earlier than feels necessary, or make a day of it: the rice terraces, a long lunch, then the festival in the evening. If you’re already planning a Ubud day around the Tegalalang terraces, going early and staying through to the music is the version of that trip that actually works.
Tickets are sold through Megatix rather than at the gate, so sort that out before you drive up.
Quick Answers About Ubud Village Jazz Festival 2026
When and where is it? August 7 and 8, 2026, at Sthala Ubud Bali, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel, in Ubud.
How big is it? 15 performances, roughly 100 musicians, across three stages over two nights.
Which edition is this? The 13th annual Ubud Village Jazz Festival.
Where do I get tickets? Through Megatix, linked from the festival’s official site. Buy ahead rather than turning up hoping.
The Chimera Villas Take
This is one of those events that rewards not rushing. Drive up in the afternoon, eat properly, let the evening run long, and come back to a villa where nobody minds what time you walk through the gate. It also slots neatly alongside the island’s bigger cultural calendar, from the Bali Arts Festival to the rest of the 2026 events worth planning around. Two nights of good jazz in a garden is a very easy yes.
