Brevard Zoo’s Jazzoo Returns With Local Food, Live Music and a Zero-Waste Mission
Jazzoo returns November 7 with seven music stages, food from 30 local vendors and an ambitious plan to keep almost everything from the night out of the landfill.
Brevard Zoo's biggest food-and-music night is coming back with a goal that extends well beyond throwing a good party.
Jazzoo is scheduled for Saturday, November 7, from 7 to 11 p.m. The all-inclusive fundraiser will spread music across seven stages and serve food from 30 local restaurants, caterers and food trucks, with sustainable serviceware used throughout the event.
The entertainment is the draw. The larger purpose is supporting a nonprofit zoo while proving that a crowd, unlimited samples and a mountain of used plates do not have to produce a mountain of landfill waste.
One night, dozens of local tastes
Jazzoo is built for wandering. Guests move between stages, sample dishes from Space Coast businesses and hear a mix of musical styles without having to choose one dinner reservation or one concert ticket.
The Zoo's current event listing describes seven stages and 30 participating food vendors. The final restaurant and performer lineups may continue to develop as November approaches, so the official Brevard Zoo event calendar remains the best place to check ticket availability and updated details.
Because Jazzoo is a fundraiser, the night also supports the work visitors see throughout the year: animal care, educational programming and conservation projects. Brevard Zoo is an independent nonprofit and says it receives no recurring government funding for operating expenses.
Zoo staff and teen volunteers sort Jazzoo waste. Photo courtesy of Brevard Zoo.
What “zero waste” means at Jazzoo
A zero-waste event does not necessarily mean producing absolutely no trash. The standard Brevard Zoo uses requires at least 90% of the event's waste, measured by weight, to avoid the landfill through composting, recycling or food donation.
The system begins before the gates open. Vendors use BPI-certified compostable plates, bowls, napkins and cutlery. Guests bring used items to staffed waste stations, where green-team members separate compostables, recycling and landfill trash. Bussers collect unwanted items around the Zoo, while staff and volunteers later inspect, weigh and record the bags.
Fresh food that was never served can be donated. Food scraps and compostable serviceware are sent to a commercial composting operation because the volume from one evening is far beyond what the Zoo's on-site animal-manure composting system can manage.
The effort has improved over time. After an earlier Jazzoo diverted 67% of its waste, Brevard Zoo reported that its 2025 event crossed the zero-waste threshold, diverting 93%. More than 1,000 pounds of food waste and compostable cutlery went to Froot Farms in Christmas, Florida, to become soil rather than landfill material.
Why the waste goal belongs at a zoo
Composting plates may feel separate from caring for giraffes, sea turtles or Florida wildlife. The Zoo sees them as part of the same responsibility. Landfills, litter and unnecessary resource use affect the habitats conservation organizations are trying to protect.
Jazzoo gives Brevard Zoo a highly visible place to test better systems. It also gives local restaurants and thousands of guests a look at what large-event composting requires: the correct materials, clearly marked stations and people willing to do the unglamorous sorting after the music stops.
On November 7, the food and performances will get most of the attention. Success will also be measured the next day, bag by bag, when the Zoo determines how little of the celebration actually became trash.
Sources and useful links
Claire Szewczyk
Claire has called Florida home for a decade, but her love of the Space Coast goes back further — to the beat-up Kennedy Space Center coffee table book she found in a thrift store when she was five. She writes about the people, places, and history that make Brevard County great, and those stories are where Brightside Brevard began.
