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For its 10th anniversary, more than a million people - and a new record - showed up for the Festival, now recognized globally as among the best attended and most appreciated musical events anywhere. The Oscar-Peterson Award was created to annually honor the best Canadian performer and, for the 15th anniversary, the Miles-Davis Award was established to reward innovation on an international level.
The Special Big Event, mid-way through the Festival, had also become a Montreal tradition, a popular event that attracted an average of 100,000 visitors to the downtown area for a free mega-show by the likes of Urban Sax, Pat Metheny and South African Johnny Clegg. Then, in 1995, almost 200,000 showed up to pay homage to the music of Cirque du Soleil and its composer René Dupéré!
In all, that year the Festival boasted some 1.5 million spectators (of whom a full 20% were from out of town) and who together dropped at least $100 million as they passed through! The event became family-oriented, as well, adding the Parc musical for kids and the Petite école du Jazz to initiate youngsters to the rhythms and instruments of jazz, with the Festival's mascot, "Ste-Cat," never far away.
On the cusp of its 25th anniversary (June 30 to July 11, 2004) the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal now annually offers about 500 concerts, of which three-quarters are free of charge, hosting about 2000 musicians, give or take a few, from over 20 countries. About 2 million visitors come from all over the planet to an event has become THE international jazz rendez-vous and a laboratory for the creation of new talent, most recently contributing to the successes of artists such as Diana Krall and Norah Jones.
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