At its 31st edition, the Jazz Festival of Sibiu is considered to be unique in Romania on account of its longevity, its durability and the impressive number of jazz figures who honoured it by their presence.

Famous jazz figures have had concerts at this Festival: Jan Garbarek - Norway; Sbigniew Namislowsky, Jan Wroblewski - Poland; Martial Solal, Didier Lockwood, Louis Sclavis, Jean- Francois Jenny-Clark, Birelli Lagrene - France; Gunther Hampel, Gunter “Baby” Sommer, Barbara Dennerlein, Silvia Droste, Joachim Kuhn, Peter Herbolzheimer, Alexander von Schlippenbach Germany; Jeanne Lee, Lynne Arriale, Charles Lloyd, Bill Evans USA; Liz Magnes, Zaviot Harald Rubin - Israel; Courtney Pine Great Britain.

The first three editions of the National Jazz Festival took place at the initiative of the Ploiesti Jazz Club, founded by Alexandru Comanescu and Roman Paul Mancas. In the early '70s. The Sibiu Jazz Club was founded with the help of the County (UTC) Committee (founders: Nicolae Ionescu, J.K. Schmidt, Fred Nuss and many others). As a consequence of “the ideological pollution”, the Festival is moved to Sibiu in 1974 and enjoys the high cultural level of a Transylvanian burg, of an ancient eurpoean culture. Three years before that, jazz music started to be noticed.