Atina Jazz Festival: the jazz capital in the heart of the Comino Valley
Atina Jazz Festival is one of the most prestigious and long-running jazz events in Italy. Born in 1986 in Atina, in the province of Frosinone, thanks to the vision of the lawyer Vittorio Fortuna, over the years, the festival has gained a prominent place on the international music scene.
Every year, in the month of July, the historic village of Atina, in the heart of the Comino Valley, hosts live concerts in squares, historical palaces and breathtaking natural locations. The festival offers programming of the highest level, with big names from the world jazz, including Michel Petrucciani, Chick Corea, John Scofield, Noa, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stefano Bollani, Tito Puente, Ron Carter and many others.
A jazz festival between art, history and territory
Since 2004, Atina Jazz has extended its artistic soul to the entire Comino Valley area, embracing neighbouring villages and unique natural settings. The musical experience blends with the authentic atmosphere of the area, amidst local panoramas, traditions and flavours.
In 2009, with over 15,000 attendances, a winter version was also born: Atina Jazz Winter, which brings great music to Ciociaria even in the coldest months.
Not just jazz: an international musical event
While remaining true to its jazz roots, the festival has evolved over time, welcoming popular music, Portuguese fado, Italian songwriting and blues, making it a “total” event, open to a wide and varied audience.
Atina Jazz 2026: programme and news
We cannot name names yet, but we can give you some “leads” to dream about. This year the bridge between Atina and the rest of the world will be stronger than ever.
Imagine an artist who is not just a musician, but a symbol of cultural resistance and melodic beauty. A man who has taken the rhythms of his land around the world, mixing the sacred and the profane, politics and poetry.
What if we told you that the Italian quota will be represented by a force of nature? A woman who has the Blues in their DNA and a voice capable of scratching and caressing at the same time.
Discover the programme
of Atina Jazz 2026
Vittorio Fortuna's words for the 1st Edition of Atina Jazz
In the course of the cultural action carried out unceasingly in Atina and Valcomino by the various cultural associations that have succeeded one another over time (e.g. the “Valcomino” Civic Collaboration Group, the “G. Visocchi” Cultural Association, the Atina Municipal Library itself), the jazz music initiative has characterised its nature.
The reasons why initiatives in the field of jazz have prevailed over those in other areas of equal artistic importance are to be found in the fact that events of the former type have always had at least a national character.
All but a few of the best Italian jazz musicians over the past 15 years have at least once performed in and around Atina.
The writer felt that the time was ripe for the prestigious initiative, which took the form of the 1st International Jazz Festival, to be realised as early as 1976, when Giorgio Gaslini's band performed before an audience of two thousand enthusiastic people on 29/5.
Historical-political and economic circumstances subsequently prevented the realisation of this project.
We therefore owe the wonderful meeting with Maestro Paolo Damiani, during one of his concerts held in Atina on 23/8/85, artistic director of the current 1st Atina International Jazz Festival, the vague first, the conception later and then the troubled launch of this seductive idea.
The 1st International Jazz Festival in Atina, hosts artists who honour it in an exemplary manner by representing some of the world's leading creators: Lee Konitz, who is at one with the history of jazz, Randy Brecker and Eliane Elias and John Taylor, some of the most outstanding protagonists of the jazz scene of the moment. The Italian musicians are also well known in Europe and throughout the world for their artistic imagination and expressive originality.
What is most important to emphasise here is the trust placed in the International Jazz Festival, which starts its activities this year but which the organisers wish to promote on a permanent basis every summer season, in its ability to be a fundamental tool for attracting the attention of tourists to an area that has hitherto been one of the most neglected, pleasant and evocative in Italy, and thus sanctioning its irreversible cultural and artistic take-off.
Vittorio Fortuna
How to Get to Atina
Atina is located in province of Frosinone, at about:
45 minutes from Frosinone city
1h 40 from Rome (A1 exit - Cassino)
1h 20 from Naples
👉 From Rome or Naples: take the A1 motorway (Milan-Naples) and exit at Cassino. Continue on the SS509 in the direction of Sora, following the signs for Atina.
The nearest airports are:
Rome Ciampino Airport (1h 40 min)
Rome Fiumicino Airport (2h 15 min)
Naples Capodichino Airport (1h 40 min)
From the airports, you can continue by train to Cassino, continue by bus or rent a car.
