Blues Band \"The Steven Barry Band\" plays on an open stageThe Montreal International Jazz Festival (MIJF, also called the Jazz Fest, in French Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM)) is the largest jazz festival in the world. It is held annually in Montreal, Quebec during the summer season (usually the beginning of July) and gathers artists from around the world. It is typically attended by over 2 million people who are attracted by the electric atmosphere, diversity of shows and by the city itself. Many parts of the city\'s downtown core are closed to traffic for two weeks as outdoor shows are free to the public on many stages. Attendance to some shows is over a hundred thousand.\n\nShows are held in a wide variety of venues, from relatively small jazz clubs to the large halls of Place des Arts. Some of the outdoor shows are held on cordoned-off streets while others are on terraced parks.\n\nHistory\nThe Montreal Jazz Festival was conceived by Alain Simard, who had spent much of the 1970s working with Productions Kosmos bringing artists such as Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and others to Montreal to perform. In 1977, Simard teamed up with André Ménard and Denys McCann to form an agency named Spectra Scène (now known as L\'Équipe Spectra), with the idea of creating a summer festival in Montreal that would bring a number of artists together at the same time. 2000, band, blues, Festival, Jazz, Montreal, tenelli