Whether you’re a longtime Tuesday Night Jazz regular or just discovering us, if you’re looking for a truly proper way to thank 2025 and welcome 2026 (literally at midnight!), we have a suggestion.

There’s a superstition that how you meet the New Year is how you’ll spend it — so why not start 2026 together, swinging through the very last minutes of 2025?

Ring in New Year’s Eve with a Trad Jazz All-Stars Concert & Swing Dance — a perfect excuse to celebrate the year that was and swing straight into the next one.

8:00 pm: An everyone-welcome swing dance lesson with the wonderful Joel Schwartz & Louise Schwartz (no experience required — really!)

9:00 pm to midnight: Live concert & swing dance with Lloyd Arntzen, Owen Chow, Kelby MacNayr, Peter Dowse, and special guest Solomon Douglas.

This is both a concert and a dance — come to dance, come to listen, or come to intend to dance and mostly enjoy the music.

A non-alcoholic sparkling toast at midnight included!

...how to meet the New Year the Tuesday Night Jazz way. But whether you’re warming up early or calling it a night before midnight to wake up fresh in January, here are a few more suggestions you might enjoy

Celebrate New Year’s Eve early with a beloved Victoria tradition — the Early New Year’s Eve Jazz Party!

Join us from 2:00 to 4:00 pm for a fun, relaxed, and everyone-welcome afternoon of live jazz with SIX of the city’s top jazz musicians. Admission is by donation, and all are welcome.

Curious about the full all-star lineup? Click the link below — though the silhouette in the image might already be giving away WHO’s going to participate.

Drummer and bandleader Kelby MacNayr assembles five of the West Coast’s finest improvisers to breathe life into the classic jazz sounds of the 1950s and ’60s Blue Note era.

The exceptional lineup includes Cuban trumpet sensation Miguelito Valdes, lyrical saxophonist Roy Styffe, pianist Tony Genge, bassist Peter Dowse, and the explosive drumming of bandleader Kelby MacNayr.

With the goal of bringing back to the bandstand the toe-tapping, swinging, storytelling traditions of Blue Note Records artists, this band sizzles as it celebrates the work of Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Duke Pearson, and more!