“My favorite part is really hearing everybody perform, that’s what this is all about,” said Whitaker.

The festival was in Downtown East Lansing with two stages: The Main Stage parking lot #1 at 230 Albert Ave., and the MSU Outreach & Engagement Education Stage at the Ann Street Plaza. The main stage hosted local, regional and national jazz talent while the plaza stage presented high school students and up-and-coming musicians.

“This has developed into a world class jazz festival so every year that I get the opportunity to perform at this festival is always an honor. It is always a lot of fun to see all the musicians both from around the local East Lansing area and across the nation. So it’s a really great job that the city of East Lansing and Rodney Whitaker have done,” said Diego Rivera, assistant professor of MSU Jazz Studies saxophone and improvisation. Rivera performed on Friday with Rodney Whitaker and Soul-R-Energy and Saturday with the Lansing Symphony Jazz Orchestra.

Rivera said this week has also played host to the second annual MSU Jazz Studies Big Band Symposium.

Caroline Glaeser, assistant coordinator for MSU Jazz Studies, said the symposium is made up of 45 students from all over the country.

“The students have been in big band, they’ve been in combo, they’ve been in lessons and learning from each other. We’ve been walking all over campus exploring and I think it has been a great weekend for them,” said Glaeser.

“The MSU professors of jazz have been so helpful this last week instilling into the kids and it is really inspiring to see how much they care about the future of jazz, and that they are willing to spend a week of their life helping high school kids,” said Glaeser.

The festival also hosted a children’s activity area organized by the Inner Circle volunteers of the Wharton Center and a Kozmic Picnik in the Sculpture Garden at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. A parade with the New Orleans Swamp Donkeys and East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett followed the picnic.

The children’s activity area had a jazz themed bean-bag toss and artsy crafts. Ryonn Clate, Wharton Center staff member, said “it all ties in with the festive atmosphere, it has been fun to see all the kids involved.”

Other contributors, such as Julian Van Dyke, participated in the festival by offering their art. Van Dyke’s and his friend James McFarland's paintings are called “Black and White.” Van Dyke also wrote and illustrated a children’s book titled “The Music We Call Jazz.”

“This year is very special because they asked me to read my book,” said Van Dyke. “It's been really fun. The crowd has been great they always give us inspiration to paint. Every year we come out and paint and inner-mingle with people and they give us love and we try to give them love.”

Jan Harmon Thompson, resident of East Lansing for over 45 years, visited the festival with Marian Thrana, East Lansing resident of 55 years, and Billie Berman, Haslett resident of 25 years.

“Wonderful, absolutely wonderful, and the weather is cooperating and of course the people are always nice,” Thompson said of the festival.

“Everybody is cheerful, everybody is happy,” said Thrana. “The music is why we come.”

Whitaker said the festival takes a year of planning with the board of directors and that the planning has gone excellent and been a great time. Next year is the festival’s 20th anniversary and Whitaker said the organizers are trying to get “a couple big names to come here and blow this place out.”

“We are trying to think big for our 20th anniversary,” said Whitaker. “We can finally have an artist come to East Lansing and do their thing.”