Red Sea Jazz Festival Eilat 2026: Visitor Guide

The Red Sea Jazz Festival is one of Israel’s largest outdoor music events — 70,000 attendees across four November nights, 35 concerts spread across four open-air stages on Eilat’s Red Sea waterfront, and a programme mixing international jazz names with Israel’s leading improvisers and world-music artists. Since 1987, it has turned Eilat’s otherwise quiet November shoulder season into the city’s busiest cultural week of the year.

This guide covers the 2026 dates, the festival format, how tickets work, and how to plan an Eilat stay around the four festival nights.

2026 dates and format

The 2026 Red Sea Jazz Festival runs Wednesday 11 November through Saturday 14 November — four nights, with the Saturday finale as the headline evening.

The festival operates on an evening schedule: opening sets typically begin around 19:00–20:00 with the final headline acts finishing well after midnight. On each evening, 9–10 concerts run concurrently or in sequence across the stages, meaning programming clashes are inevitable and part of the festival experience — audiences move between stages, discover unexpected acts, and find their own path through the night.

A daytime programme of workshops, master classes, and free satellite performances runs across the four days. These are often as rewarding as the evening concerts and significantly less crowded — morning sessions at the workshop tent have drawn extraordinary impromptu collaborations in past editions.

Stages and venues

The festival uses Eilat’s North Beach waterfront as its main arena. The two headline stages are:

King Beach stage: the largest open-air stage, oriented toward the Red Sea with the Jordanian and Saudi hills visible in the distance. Headline international acts and Israeli jazz veterans appear here. Standing capacity is large; the flat beach surface means arriving early matters for views.

Sultan Beach stage: the more intimate second stage, approximately 15 minutes’ walk from King Beach. Smaller ensembles, experimental sets, and emerging artists feature here. The smaller capacity makes this stage the pick for close, unhurried listening — queue early if a Sultan Beach act is a priority on your programme.

Two additional smaller stages — typically a club-format indoor tent and a daytime workshop space — complete the layout. All venues are within the North Beach strip, so moving between stages is a walking affair rather than requiring transport.

Ticket types

Tickets are sold via the official Red Sea Jazz Festival website (redsea.jazz.com is the historical domain; check current sources closer to the event as the official URL has shifted between editions).

Single-evening ticket: covers entry to all stages on one chosen night. The best option if you are in Eilat for a longer stay and want flexibility — you can attend the festival on one or two nights and still spend other evenings exploring Eilat’s waterfront restaurants and bars.

Multi-day festival pass: covers all four nights and is the better value if you are travelling specifically for the festival. Past edition prices for multi-day passes have ranged from approximately ₪400–₪600 for general standing; VIP tiers with priority entry and dedicated seating areas run higher. Check the official site for 2026 prices — these are historical estimates only.

VIP and premium tiers: typically include reserved seating sections, a separate entry queue, and sometimes a dedicated hospitality area. Worth considering for the Saturday finale headline night when general standing areas fill quickly.

Tickets typically go on sale in September. The Saturday night finale has historically sold out fastest.

Eilat hotel strategy

November 11–14 is one of Eilat’s tightest hotel windows of the year. The festival draws 70,000 people to a city with a finite hotel supply concentrated on two beach zones. Book early — ideally 3 months ahead, and no later than 6–8 weeks before the festival.

North Beach hotel strip (recommended for festival visitors): walking distance to both King Beach and Sultan Beach stages. This is the most convenient base — no transport needed between your room and the concert venues. Hotels here include the large international resort chains; rooms with Red Sea views in the ₪700–₪1,400/night range during festival week.

Coral Beach zone: 3–4 km south of the festival stages. Quieter and slightly cheaper, but requires a taxi or the city bus to reach the concert venues each evening. Good option if the North Beach hotels are full or price-prohibitive.

The festival does not run shuttle buses between accommodation areas — check the official site each year for any transport updates. The city bus (Egged line 15) runs along the coastal road, but late-night festival return journeys mean taxis and rideshares will be in higher demand after midnight.

Getting to Eilat

By air: Ramon Airport (HRL), 18 km north of Eilat city, handles domestic Israeli flights. El Al, Arkia, and Israir all operate the Ben Gurion–Ramon route; the flight is 45–55 minutes. Ramon also handles some international charter flights during peak season. Book flights at the same time as your hotel — festival weekend evening return flights sell out weeks in advance.

By bus: Egged operates direct services from Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station (approximately 3 hours) and from Tel Aviv’s Southern Bus Terminal (approximately 4.5 hours). The journey along Route 40 through the Negev is one of Israel’s great desert drives by any mode of transport. Bus frequency drops in the late evening; plan your return from the late festival night accordingly.

By car: approximately 3 hours from Tel Aviv via Route 40 (the Negev highway). Driving gives flexibility for Negev day trips (Red Canyon, Timna Park, Mitzpe Ramon) alongside the festival. Parking in the North Beach hotel zone is paid and fills early on festival evenings; arriving before 17:00 is strongly recommended if you drive.

November in Eilat

The festival date is well chosen: November is Eilat’s best month for visitors who are not specifically seeking beach holiday heat. Daytime temperatures sit at 28–30°C — warm enough for snorkelling and swimming, but without the oppressive 40°C+ of the July–August peak. The Red Sea water temperature is 23–24°C, excellent for snorkelling and diving. Israeli school holidays do not fall in early-mid November, so crowds are far below the summer levels.

Activities to combine with festival evenings:

• Coral Beach Nature Reserve: Eilat’s world-class fringing reef, with free-entry snorkelling from the shore. Best in the morning before afternoon winds pick up. Eilat beach guide covers the beach zones and coral access in detail.
• Eilat Underwater Observatory Marine Park: the giant shark tunnel, submarine cruise, and coral-reef aquarium make for a 3–4 hour visit. Ideal for a festival-day afternoon.
• Red Canyon: a 3-km hike through dramatic red sandstone formations, 30 minutes’ drive north of Eilat. A half-day from the city. See the Red Canyon Eilat guide.
• Timna Park: ancient copper mining landscape with the famous Mushroom Rock and King Solomon’s Pillars, 25 km north of Eilat. See the Timna Park guide.
• Dolphin Reef: snorkelling with free-ranging bottlenose dolphins; sessions require advance booking in November. Eilat Dolphin Reef guide.

Combining the festival with wider Eilat

The Red Sea Jazz Festival fits naturally into a longer Eilat visit:

• Eilat travel guide: full city overview, practical logistics, Coral Beach zone map, and Eilat transport options — Eilat travel guide.
• Eilat hotels guide: area-by-area accommodation guide with honest price-band guidance and how to choose your Eilat base — Eilat hotels guide.
• Eilat nightlife: beyond the festival, Eilat’s restaurants, bars, and late-night scene — Eilat nightlife guide.
• Israel in November: the full November visitor picture across Israel — northern Galilee alternatives, Sukkot season, and climate context — Israel in November guide.
• Israel music festivals: the wider Israeli festival calendar with summer and autumn events — Israel music festivals guide.
• Eilat Chamber Music Festival: Eilat’s companion classical festival in late November or December — indoor concert halls, opera highlights, and world music with a Red Sea backdrop — Eilat Chamber Music Festival guide.
• Fattal Rock Festival Eilat: Eilat’s annual June Israeli rock weekend — 3 evenings of domestic rock headliners at Fattal Hotels’ North Beach beachfront, Gulf of Aqaba waterfront stages — Fattal Rock Festival guide.
• 3 days in Eilat: a practical three-day Eilat itinerary to frame the festival in a longer Red Sea trip — 3 days in Eilat.