Over the last few years blues, rhythm'n'blues and soul have appeared, with well-known names such as Lucky Peterson and Maceo Parker, and Latin jazz with Tito Puente, Irakere or Ray Barreto, and the festival has featured the most avant-garde artists, from Ornette Coleman and Michel Portal's free jazz to Joe Zawinul's world music, thus reacting to an ever-widening public.
During the first two weeks of August Marciac becomes a celebration of music. The giant marquee seats 6,000 and hosts evening concerts, but many more people spend time at the "Off" festival. All day long the whole village is a myriad of activities, free concerts on the square, art exhibitions, films, a market for local products, and stands selling craftwork, not to mention the cafes and bars on every pavement. There is a real village atmosphere, centred around jazz, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year.
For the last few years concerts have been held at monthly intervals, from October until June, with top names playing. These concerts are linked with weekend courses open to amateurs who want to improve their musical skills, courses which are led by renowned musicians. This is a follow-up to the introduction of the first-ever jazz course in a state school in France, pupils are introduced to jazz music, as part of their curriculum. Indeed, such has been its success that it was recently awarded a "Victoire du Jazz" honour, confirming Marciac as a leader in its domain. In addition, there is the " Territoires du Jazz " museum, an astonishing creation which uses up-to-date audio-visual technology to take visitors on a tour through the universe of Black American music. All of these elements make Marciac a place that "it's worth going out of your way for". For the love of music, for the tourist attractions, for the food, for the experience!