After 30 years of hosting the Christmas Jam, Warren Haynes and the W&S Charitable Foundation will take a brief hiatus from their annual arena show at the U.S. Cellular Center this year. The 31st Annual Christmas Jam will take place next year. This break will enable the team to build even further upon Christmas Jam’s charitable reach and mission to best serve the needs of the Asheville community. The event plans to return in 2020 with an exciting lineup and a weekend full of memorable music and Christmas Jam activities. An announcement regarding the 31st Christmas Jam will be made in early 2020.
Warren Haynes addressed the 2019 Christmas Jam hiatus in a press release. As the guitarist explained,
Since we started the Christmas Jam in 1988, it has grown in every way we wished for, and in many ways that we could have only hoped for when we first set out. After three decades, and an amazing two-night 30th Anniversary last year, it feels like the right time to take a brief moment to press pause. We have poured our heart and soul into creating this annual event and our commitment to serve the Asheville community and Habitat for Humanity remains strong.
I am so grateful to our many partners that help us bring the community together around the Christmas Jam every year, including the city of Asheville, Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, WNCW, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., CID Entertainment, all of our production partners, venues, hotels, and local businesses, our incredible staff and volunteers, and countless others. And, of course, all the fans who have supported the Christmas Jam. We can’t do it without you.
I will certainly miss seeing you all this year. Christmas Jam has become such a special time for me, my family and our Asheville community, and we look forward to continuing the tradition that we have all built together for many years to come. We are already planning a big show for 2020 and we can’t wait to share with you what’s in store. We will see you next year.
While the event itself will be taking this year off, Haynes and the W&S Charitable Foundation are not taking the year off from philanthropy. In keeping with Christmas Jam’s three-decade tradition of giving back to the Asheville community, Haynes and the W&S Charitable Foundation have donated $400,000 to the Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity—one of the largest in the event’s history, bringing the new total to $2.7 million raised since 1999. Proceeds for this donation were derived from the 30th Annual Christmas Jam weekend in Asheville, NC that took place in December 2018 which included the Pre-Jam at the Orange Peel, two nights at the U.S. Cellular Center, Xmas Jam by Day at the Asheville Music Hall, The One Stop, and Jack of the Wood, The Snow Jam at the Orange Peel, and the Xmas Jam Pop-Up Gallery. 2018 marked an unforgettable year in Christmas Jam history with its iconic guests including Dave Grohl and Eric Church and even the addition of The Snow Jam, an impromptu show at the Orange Peel with Dave Grohl and Warren Haynes which closed out the four-night Christmas Jam music marathon.
While Christmas Jam will not take place in 2019, fans can look forward to the upcoming release of Warren Haynes Presents: The Benefit Concert Volume 16, a new live album and film recorded at Christmas Jam 2014, on December 13th. To stay up-to-date with Haynes’ various upcoming gigs, head here.