A new partnership brings fresh flavors to the Monterey Jazz Festival food scene.

Hungry jazz lovers at the 66th annual Monterey Jazz Festival will find a range of new food and beverage options at the fairgrounds this weekend, from slow-smoked ribs to Asian noodles to vegan offerings and fresh fruit. This off-stage lineup, curated to delight the culinary senses, is thanks to a partnership between MJF and the Silicon Valley Minority Business Consortium.

Founded by Walter Wilson and Reginald Swilley, the Minority Business Consortium (MBC) helps connect small businesses run by people from underrepresented communities (women, veterans, people of color, etc.) with business opportunities of all kinds – from government contracting to selling barbecue at a music festival.

“The Minority Business Consortium has been a bridge to bringing previously unengaged business communities into major business opportunities across the country,” Wilson says of the group’s activities over roughly the past 15 years. “Our focus has been on small women – and minority-owned businesses.

“We open these doors,” he adds. Until last year, MJF crafted its food vendor lineup in-house; when staffers attended farmers markets, street festivals or other festivals and found a spot they liked, they’d invite the business to pop up during festival weekend. This process turned up some favorites, including Strictly Vegan Jamaican Cuisine – don’t worry, they aren’t going anywhere.

In 2022, MJF started working with contractor Levy Restaurants, hoping to streamline and professionalize the food-vending side of the event. This means coordinating a host of simple but vital things, like making sure that each food vendor has compostable utensils (per MJF’s sustainability commitment) or offering a single point-of-sale system for cashless transactions. It’s not the type of thing the average jazz festival-goer might notice, but it’s important nonetheless. “Levy helps create a systemic approach,” MJF Executive Director Colleen Bailey says.

It was Levy that brought the Minority Business Consortium to the table – they already work together on Levy’s contract at the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium. “That just seemed like a perfect match,” Bailey says, of Levy’s pitch to bring the Consortium in for 2023. “We really take our [diversity, equity and inclusion] work very seriously here, and we look at that in all aspects of what we do, including the vendors we work with.”

MBC’s job in the equation is to recruit and vet the vendors – small businesses selling diverse, high-quality food at reasonable prices. This meant dipping into the company’s existing network as well as going to other local festivals to try the food. It all culminates in the lineup of around 30 vendors (10 are specialty food vendors selling things like coffee or kettle corn) that will fill the fairgrounds this weekend.

“Literally everything you want to look for is going to be there,” Wilson says. There’s Leeka’s Rib Crib BBQ from Los Angeles (“she has a smoker that’s amazing”), local caterer Cesar’s Etc. (“he sells everything”) and taqueria Tres Hermanos (“you’d think you’re in Mexico”).

“The festival organizers wanted to get away from a fair-type of environment, and really have something more sophisticated in terms of the cuisine,” Wilson adds about the types of vendors that MBC sought out. “So we really strive to do that. But listen – you’re still going to have hot dogs and hamburgers, OK, people love hot dogs and hamburgers no matter what the situation is. But we also have Caribbean food and Latin food and Italian food… I’m making myself hungry just thinking about it.”

The ultimate goal, Bailey says, is to “elevate the food experience” at the festival. “We have the greatest music, unbelievable talent on the stages. So we want the food and beverage experiences to meet that same benchmark.

“We want to spark all the senses at the Monterey Jazz Festival.”

MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL runs Friday, Sept. 22-Sunday, Sept. 24. Monterey County Fair and Event Center, 2004 Fairground Road, Monterey. $30-$95/grounds only; $135-$286/arena tickets. montereyjazzfestival.org. Learn more about the Minority Business Consortium at minoritybusinessconsortium.com.