Spotlight: Leigh Sawmill Jazz Festival ft. Love Square, Joe Kaptein, Hopetoun Brown

Now we've all enjoyed the novelty of being back at work in 2026, it's time to boost it up the highway and return to summer fun. Leigh Sawmill Jazz Festival will be getting the crowd moving with a multidimensional lineup of local greats this coming Saturday and Sunday, plus kids under twelve can come along for free!

Playing Saturday afternoon, wizard on the keys Joe Kaptein gave us 2025's superb long player Pool Sharks and is a core member of such significant local groups as The Circling Sun, Princess Chelsea's The Dream Warriors, Bub, The Situations, Crystal Chen's band, power trio AIGHT, and probably even more since we last checked.

Saturday night stars the horn-tooting goodness of Hopetoun Brown (Nick Atkinson and Tim Stewart with Finn Scholes), while the instrumental tri-force that is Love Square — Finn Scholes, Nick Atkinson and Alistair Deverick — will take control on Sunday afternoon. We expect tunes from their new album The Lighthouse to sound magical in the sunny setting of Leigh Sawmill Café, plus we strongly recommend nabbing tickets right away, as last year's festival was full to the brim. Here are the details...

"The famous Leigh Sawmill Jazz Festival is returning for its second year with hot new artists and some classic crowd favourites. The first fest pulsed and heaved with summery jazz energy and we've tweaked the format so it'll be even better this summer. It was a very hot ticket last year with capacity crowds for all sessions so don't sleep on this one! This family friendly event allows kids 12 and under free entry with a ticket hold guardian.

Choose a weekend festival pass to get you into all three sessions or pick and choose as you like with individual session tickets."

Leigh Sawmill Jazz Festival

Joe Kaptein - Saturday 17th January, afternoon session*
Hopetoun Brown - Saturday 17th January, evening session
Love Square - Sunday 18th January, afternoon session*

*Festival and session passes on sale HERE via UTR

Boogie down to 'Herb Albert' from Joe Kaptein's new album Pool Sharks...

Get your groove on to 'Nick Move' from Love Square's new album The Lighthouse...

Check out Hopetoun Brown's 'Put It Down' from their 2018 album Don't Let Them Lock You Up...