Summer Jazz Festival Kraków took place for the first time in 1996, on the 40th anniversary of “Piwnica pod Baranami” club.

This festival hosts around 100 concerts with over 200 Polish and international artists each year. Since 2001 it also features “Jazz Lamb” award.

In every passing year the festival has enhanced its formula, adding Kraków Philharmonic, Kraków Opera, Auditorium Maximum, Kraków Radio, Manggha Center, various Jazz nightclubs and massive open air events such as New Orleans Sunday and Jazz Night to its list of locations, alongside Piwnica pod Baranami where it started out. The entirety of Polish Jazz elite has performed as part of this cycle, including Adam Makowicz, Tomasz Stańko, Urszula Dudziak, Michał Urbaniak, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Jarek Śmietana, Wojciech Karolak, Jan “Ptaszyn” Wróblewski, Leszek Możdżer and Piotr Wojtasik, just to name a few. Big international names that have appeared are Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Bobby McFerrin, Robert Glasper, Jean Luc Ponty, Leny White, Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Maria Schneider, Eddie Henderson, Greg Osby, Richard Bona, Nigel Kennedy, Larry Coryell, The Rosenberg Trio, Rashied Ali, Ricky Ford, John Abercrombie, Nils Landgren, Joao Bosco, James Genus, Hiram Bullock, Leni Stern, Rachel Z, Vadim Brodski and many others.