Venue
Corso Cavour 143, Orvieto, Umbria, Italy
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Umbria Jazz Winter, Orvieto guide
Jazz over New Year in hilltop Orvieto.
In short
Jazz fans can spend 30 December 2026 to 3 January 2027 in Orvieto, where Umbria Jazz Winter fills a theatre, civic palace halls and the cathedral. Musicians stay for the whole run and play several times, so the programme rewards staying for several days. The line-up appears on umbriajazz.it before Christmas, so book rooms early.
Umbria Jazz Winter brings Italy's best-known jazz festival to the hilltop town of Orvieto for the turn of the year. For five days, concerts fill a nineteenth-century theatre, the halls of a civic palace and the cathedral, while a marching band carries the music through the streets between them.
The format is unusual. Most musicians stay for the whole run and play several times, so the programme feels like a small community of players. Gospel choirs, piano trios and late-night jam sessions share the same few streets, and the audience moves between them on foot.
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Key Facts & Stats:
Ends: Sunday, 3 January 2027
Where: Orvieto, Italy
Venue: Teatro Mancinelli
Held: Every year
Type of event: Live Events, Musical Events
Currency: Euro (EUR, €)
Time zone: Central European Time, UTC+1 (UTC+2 in summer)
Language: Italian
Map
Getting around
Hotels near the venue fill up around the event dates.
Behaviour at gospel concerts in the cathedral
Gospel sets in the Duomo take place in a working cathedral, not a concert hall. Dress modestly, keep voices low before the music starts and do not wander the nave while the choir sings. If a concert follows a service, wait quietly for it to end before you take a seat. Applause is welcome once the choir finishes, but flash photography is not.
Coats, phones and seats in historic venues
- The venues are old theatres and palace halls, not arenas. Arrive early to find coat space and a good seat where seating is unreserved.
- Keep phones silent and filming short. These rooms are small, and a screen held up blocks several people behind you.
- Stone buildings in winter are chilly between sets. Layers work better than one heavy coat.
- Late jam sessions run long. Bring cash or a card for a drink, and pace yourself.
UJ4KIDS and the marching band for families
The festival runs a programme for young listeners called UJ4KIDS, developed with schools and local institutions. The marching band that works the streets is easy to enjoy and suits children who cannot sit through a full concert. Late jam sessions are another matter, so plan family evenings around the earlier shows and leave the small hours to the grown-ups. A seat near the aisle makes an early exit easy.
What happens on the day
- Daytime
Concerts
In the Teatro Mancinelli and the Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo, with more intimate sets at the Museo Emilio Greco.
- Lunch and dinner
Jazz meals
Jazz lunches and dinners keep the music going over meals.
- Through the day
Street band
The Funk Off marching band works the streets of the centre.
- Around midnight
Jam sessions
The resident band plays into the small hours.
- 31 December
New Year's Eve
Parties and dinner concerts before and after the bells; in the last edition a gospel choir sang at the Teatro Mancinelli from 1am.
Buying tickets for small venues in Orvieto
Most Umbria Jazz Winter concerts sit behind a ticket, and the stages are rooms inside historic buildings. Sales run through the Tickets section of umbriajazz.it. The festival's habit of keeping artists in town for the whole run helps you here. A band you miss on the first night will usually play again, so you can build a schedule around a few must-hear names and fill the gaps later.
The New Year's Eve dinner concerts are the first seats to go. In the last edition two of them ran, in the Sala Expo of the Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo and at the Palazzo dei Sette. If you want to hear midnight with a band, book those as soon as the programme appears.
The winter edition's history and its venues
Umbria Jazz began in Perugia in 1973 and still fills that city each summer. The winter edition gives the brand a different mood: smaller rooms, shorter walks, and a calendar shaped around the turn of the year. It has now passed thirty years in Orvieto.
The venues carry their own history. The Teatro Mancinelli on Corso Cavour opened in 1866 and was renamed in 1922 for Luigi and Marino Mancinelli, two local musicians who built careers abroad. The Duomo, where gospel choirs have sung for the festival, holds Luca Signorelli's frescoes of the Last Judgment, and hearing a choir under them is one of the stranger pleasures of an Italian New Year. Some years the choir has waited for the first Mass of January to finish before singing.
The music is broad. Recent programmes have mixed piano trios, Italian film music, bebop tributes and revival bands playing the jazz of the 1920s and 1930s. Funk Off, the street band, blends funk with New Orleans marching traditions. Young players get stages too, through award groups from the Berklee clinics held in Perugia. The festival treats Orvieto as one large club, and you move between rooms the way you would between sets.
Getting there
Flying in
Rome's airports are the usual gateway; compare Dhaka to Rome flights.
By train
Orvieto is on the main Florence to Rome line. Trenitalia is the festival's partner carrier.
Up to the old town
The station is in Orvieto Scalo at the foot of the rock. The funicular climbs to Piazza Cahen in under two minutes, every 15 minutes; the 3 euro ticket includes a shuttle bus on to the Duomo.
By car
Orvieto is reached from the A1 motorway, then a steep climb to the old town, where many streets are pedestrian.
Where to stay during the festival
A room in the centro storico on the rock lets you walk home from the last set; the funicular stops in the evening, long before the jam sessions end. The town is small and the festival fills it, so book early.
Two or three nights is enough for most visitors; arrive by the 30th for the opening concerts.
Weather and what to pack
Orvieto in midwinter is cold and often damp, and fog in the valley below the rock is common. The stone streets between venues are chilly after dark, so pack proper winter layers.
Worth packing
- A warm coat and scarf
- Shoes with grip for wet cobbles
- Smart clothes for a New Year's Eve dinner concert
Car hire in Orvieto
Airport transfer to Umbria Jazz Winter, Orvieto
Met at arrivals at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) and driven door to door to Teatro Mancinelli.
- Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) → Teatro Mancinelli
- 158 km · 2 hr 10 min
Restaurants and food in Italy
Places to eat in Italy before or after the celebrations.
Cantina Do Mori
Sestiere San Polo 429, 30125 Venice, Italy
Cuisine:VenetianCicchetti
- Dine-in
- Bar
- Counter seating
L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele
Via Cesare Sersale 1/7, 80139 Naples, Italy
Cuisine:Neapolitan pizzaPizzeria
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
Roscioli Salumeria con Cucina
Via dei Giubbonari 21, 00186 Rome, Italy
Cuisine:RomanItalian
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
- Counter seating
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Need help?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
General
Through the Tickets section of the official Umbria Jazz website. Prices for the 2026 to 2027 edition had not been published when this page was written, so check back once the programme is out.
Yes, in recent years several venues have offered dinners with live music before and after midnight. They are among the first events to sell out, so book them as soon as sales open.
The edition that ended on 1 January 2025 listed more than ninety events, with 25 bands and about 150 artists across six stages. Expect a similar scale, though numbers change each year.
No. It stops in the evening, long before the last jam session ends. If you are staying near the station, plan a taxi or a car for the trip back down.
Spaces on the rock are scarce and many streets are closed to traffic. Free parking at the railway station or on Via Roma is the practical choice.
The names were still under wraps at the time of writing. The festival usually mixes Italian and American musicians, a resident band, gospel and a street band, with names released before Christmas.
The festival announced in October 2026 that the official artwork for the 2026/2027 poster is by Nuvolo. Posters and merchandise are a small collecting habit among regular visitors.
In recent editions it has worked as a non-stop bistro and meeting point with music, and it has hosted one of the New Year's Eve dinners.
They do. Winners of the Conad Jazz Contest and an award group from the Berklee clinics held in Perugia have performed at recent winter editions.
Booking
Yes, to a degree. The Funk Off marching band has played daily in the streets of the old town, so you will hear brass simply by walking between venues.