Denver Jazz Festival fans are singing the blues after the city of Denver announced Thursday the popular, 21-year Five Points neighborhood staple will not happen in 2025.

Denver’s Arts & Venues officials announced the one-day music event honoring the neighborhood’s long history of the famed genre will be canceled in lieu of a grants program.

City officials said the grant program will honor the area’s rich jazz history, according to a news release.

The move to a year-round grant program is “the result of changing neighborhood needs” and “rising event expenses meant more spent on production costs over funding to artist,” according to the release.

The move comes after complaints from area businesses. 

“Bottom line is the festival has grown, street closures happened and impacted the businesses,” said Brian Kitts, a spokesperson for Arts & Venues,

“The single day festival is a less practical means of achieving the festival’s original goals,” according to the release.

Five Points neighborhood, once known as the Harlem of the West, offered several jazz clubs. Many of the clubs featured some of jazz music’s legends, including the likes of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk.

Over the course of the 20-year-old festival’s history, local names such as Hazel Miller, Buckner Funken Jazz, Jakarta, Conjunto Colores, Purnell Steen, JoFoKe aNem and Wil Alston have graced festival stages.

The Five Points Jazz Festival dates back to 2003, when it was first held in the parking lot of the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library on a cold, rainy spring day. Arturo Gómez, the music director and on-air host at KUVO Jazz, was there, according to Rocky Mountain PBS.

It offered nonstop entertainment, a variety of food options, shopping and activities.

Here’s the city’s plan to replace the festival with a grant program:

Instead of a festival, officials said Denver has partnered with the Five Points Business Improvement District and the representing Councilmember Darrell Watson. Both parties plan to facilitate $250,000 through grants to businesses, nonprofits, and creative outlets related to jazz programs in 2025.

“Our neighborhood was once known as the ‘Harlem of the West’ and our history continues to be written,” Norman Harris, executive director of the Five Points Business Improvement District, said in a statement. “This fund will help support businesses that truly appreciate the art form and what it has done in our community.”

Gretchen Hollrah, executive director of Denver Arts & Venues, in a statement said: “The Five Points Jazz Activation Fund is a commitment by the city to continue building this historic neighborhood’s cultural treasure.”

The window for grant applications opens in early 2025, according to city officials.

“A year-round emphasis on arts and culture represented by jazz in Five Points is a way to invest more significantly in jazz artists and enliven the neighborhood in a more consistent manner,” Hollrah said. “It’s a one-of-a-kind program that complements existing festivals and events in Denver.”

Watson, the council representative for Five Points, said the program will continue to recognize what Jazz Fest was built upon.

“As a city, we recognize that arts, culture, and the history of jazz all meet in Five Points,” Watson said, “This program gives us a chance to recognize the past with an eye on the neighborhood’s future.”

Kitts told The Denver Gazette on Thursday the decision was made following complaints and ideas of how to honor jazz in Five Points.

“It felt like a more consistent way to serving that particular community,” Kitts said, adding “spreading the money out over a course of a year as opposed to doing a one-off event was something that held a lot of promise.”