Good morning, it’s Monday, August 17. Expect more sunshine and a smidge of clouds today, with temps in the high 80s by afternoon.
1. What actually happened with the last-minute cancellation of the LA Jazz Festival?
Martin Ludlow, founder of the LA Jazz Festival, speaks during a preview event in Santa Monica on April 30, 2026. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP via Getty Images)
Roughly 24 hours before the much-hyped inaugural LA Jazz Festival was supposed to open in Leimert Park, my colleague Hayes Davenport typed a message into our newsroom Slack.
“So,” he wrote, “something is afoot with the LA Jazz Festival,” explaining that the festival’s website had been scrubbed and a page that once listed a multitude of shows was now password protected.
It was unclear what, exactly, was going on, but by the next afternoon — hours before the first concert would have begun — festival organizer Martin Ludlow had put out a statement saying the 2026 festival was off.
So began a saga that would consume most of my waking hours for the next eight days.
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