Festivals · Fri 30 Oct 2026
Borneo Jazz Festival 2026: the 20th edition moves into Miri city centre, 4 and 5 December
Borneo Jazz turns 20 in Miri on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 December 2026, staged in the city centre for the first time at Pullman Miri Waterfront: a free festival village through the day, then ticketed concerts until midnight under the theme Beyond Jazz.
Sarawak has two big music weekends, and they bookend the year nicely. The Rainforest World Music Festival fills the Sarawak Cultural Village near Kuching in June. Borneo Jazz, its jazz counterpart, belongs to Miri in the north, and for its 20th edition it moves into the city centre for the first time, at Pullman Miri Waterfront on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 December 2026. The Sarawak Tourism Board announced the edition at a press conference in Kuching on 2 October, under the theme Beyond Jazz, and the festival's official ticketing page carries the full programme and entry rules. The listing is the Borneo Jazz Festival 2026 event page.
Two festivals sharing one day
The day splits in two. From 10am to 10pm the Borneo Jazz Festival Village runs outdoors and free: food and drink stalls, arts and crafts, retail booths, live performances and the Borneo Pavilion, with participants from Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Indonesia. Entry is free, but every visitor has to register online before coming in, and concert ticket holders register separately for the village, as the two zones are run apart. In the evening the festival moves indoors for the Borneo Jazz Live Concert, ticketed, from 7pm to midnight, with a wristband issued at registration that allows re-entry through the night.
The music, and the tickets
Ten acts from seven countries play across the two evenings, five a night, and Beyond Jazz is meant literally: the bill runs across jazz, contemporary R&B, hip-hop, electronic music and jazz fusion, with stronger participation from across Borneo built into the programme. Tickets are sold per show: RM75 for young adults (students with a valid student card, and anyone aged 18 and below), RM150 standing, and RM500 for VIP, which adds a pre-show cocktail, a meet and greet and VIP seating. Buying two or more tickets in the same category, VIP or standing, takes 20 percent off, whether the bundle is for a group on one night or one person across both nights. Tickets are digital, sales are through the official festival channels, and they are non-refundable, so book once your travel is set.
Making a Miri weekend of it
The venue is a waterfront hotel in the centre of Miri, so the festival needs no expedition planning: fly in from Kuala Lumpur or Kuching, stay near the waterfront, and walk between the village, the concerts and the city's cafes. Miri also works as a base beyond the festival: it is the jumping-off point for the Niah caves and for the short flight on to Gunung Mulu National Park, so a jazz weekend extends naturally into a few slower days in northern Sarawak. If June suits you better, the sister festival is covered in our Rainforest World Music Festival 2027 guide.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.