Mostly Jazz 2026 Sunday Experience

Why We Went

I’ve been into this kind of music, jazz, funk, soul, for about two years now, though not super actively. I only found out about Mostly Jazz last summer, and only because I really like Jalen Ngonda and saw that he’d played the festival after it had already happened. Looking into it, it seemed like a great festival, so I decided we’d get tickets for next time.

We bought early release tickets before the lineup was even announced, so they were cheap. We didn’t go for the whole weekend. The festival runs Friday to Sunday and we’re close enough to Birmingham that a day trip made more sense. Friday would have been awkward to get time off for, and Saturday was looking even worse, since England could have ended up playing a World Cup quarterfinal that night if they went that far. Sunday was the obvious choice.

Weeks later they announced the lineup and I was buzzing. Jalen Ngonda was headlining again, this time on the Sunday we’d already booked. They also announced Thee Sacred Souls and Olive Jones for the same day, and out of the entire weekend’s lineup, those three were the only artists I actually knew. All on the day we’d picked. Pure luck.

Getting There and In

We went by train and then took an Uber from Birmingham city centre to Moseley Park, only about six pounds and probably cheaper than the bus would have been. We got in around 12:30pm and it was a really smooth entry, no faff at all.

The Layout

The stage setup is a bit unusual. There are two main stages right next to each other, so while one act plays, the next is already setting up on the other. You never really miss anything from either stage if you just stay in one spot, you literally just turn around. For a small festival that’s a genuinely clever bit of design.

There’s a third stage that’s covered, mostly used for DJ sets, which was a good escape from the sun when we wanted shade. We didn’t spend long there. There was also a smaller stage tucked out of the way running dance workshops, we gave that about ten minutes.

Near the entrance there were a few merch stalls, a woman running a little stand where you could write your name, where you’re from, and something nice in a notebook, some old consoles you could play games on, and a couple of clothes stalls that were more interesting than I expected.

Food and Drink

We’d had breakfast before we left so we weren’t starving going in. Through the day we ended up sharing four different mains between us, each around £15.

A burger from OPM: Original Patty Men, very good.
Our favourite was a spice box from Hawker Dan, run by Dan Lee, the MasterChef: The Professionals winner.
A loaded chips with pulled pork from one of the fries stalls, also solid.
A jerk chicken plate from Jerk Centre Street Food. Smaller portion than the others but really good, and the queue for it was a bit longer to get through.

Drinks-wise, we had a few half pints, including Intuition from Attic Brewery, which was excellent. There was also a slush and cocktails stall where we got a strawberry daiquiri slush for about £10. Not cheap but worth it. Regular beers were around £7.50 a pint.

They changed the policy this year to let you bring in unopened soft drinks, which given how hot it was is a genuinely great touch. We brought four small bottles and reused them at the water refill stations later, there were about three of those dotted around and they were never too busy.

Nothing about the day felt overcrowded. There were queues for food and drink at points, maybe worst around 6pm, but staff were upfront that it’d be about 15 minutes, which is completely reasonable, and drinks queues moved quickly. Toilets were near the entrance, which seemed to be the only ones on site, but the festival is small enough that it was never a long walk anywhere.

The Sets

Olive Jones opened things up for us with a really good voice. She played early so the vibe was still pretty chilled, we mostly sat and listened.

Don West came on next and was extremely charismatic, very tall, quite funny. We actually ran into him in the crowd afterwards, seemed like a genuinely nice guy.

We didn’t catch much of Emma-Jean Thackray, we were wandering around and getting food at that point.

Thee Sacred Souls were a proper highlight. I hadn’t realised quite how much of a frontman the lead singer was going to be. Given it’s a trio I’d assumed all three would be equally in the spotlight, but the other two were mostly on vocals and instruments in the background while he carried the show. He had brilliant energy, and during one song did a full loop through the crowd, nearly stumbled onto someone’s picnic blanket and ended up dancing with a random person in the crowd. We knew a lot of their songs already and it was genuinely great fun to watch.

Then Jalen Ngonda closed it out and he was incredible. We’d seen him before in London and he’s just a star. His voice is unreal, and it’s funny watching how comfortable and confident he is while actually singing, completely owns the stage, but then goes a bit shy between songs. Kind of endearing, honestly. The highlight of his set was this cover Jalen Ngonda - Baby What You Want Me To Do (Live in London), which gave a very similar vibe to the Sinners score which I am a big fan of. He’s probably my favourite artist right now and seeing him live again was special. If I’m being picky about anything, it’d be the outfit, the suit with a red shirt didn’t really suit him, I think he’d have looked cooler in an oversized white t-shirt and plain trousers, but I am in no position to say that.

Lessons for Next Time

It’s much more of a picnic festival than we expected. We only brought a quick-dry towel to sit on, which ended up being a lifesaver, but a proper picnic blanket or camping chairs would have made the day far more comfortable. Most people had come properly set up.
Bring your own soft drinks. It’s allowed now as long as they’re unopened, and refilling them at the water stations saves money.
You can bring food in from outside, so bringing breakfast or a couple of sandwiches would have saved us a bit of cash and might’ve been a bit healthier than the festival food.