You probably won't hear the keyboard artistry of world-renowned jazzman Herbie Hancock at this year's Atlanta Jazz Festival.

The 31-year-old festival, displaced from Piedmont Park because of Georgia's drought, is moving to Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta, city officials confirmed Monday. The festival is also dramatically scaling back its lineup to fit in Woodruff Park, a 3.3-acre sliver of land along Peachtree Street in the shadows of skyscrapers and Georgia State University.

There will be no national acts and no national advertising, said Greg Pridgeon, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin's chief of staff.

"It's going to be more of a local event," Pridgeon said.

Jazz Fest was the fourth and final high-profile festival to announce a new home after the city booted them from Piedmont Park because of Georgia's lingering drought. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race and Atlanta Pride Festival moved to the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. The Atlanta Dogwood Festival moved to Lenox Square.

The Jazz Festival —- which last year attracted more than 200,000 people to Midtown Atlanta —- will be limited to 49,000 people per day this year. The festival runs May 24-26. No acts have been announced.

"Once we get to 49,000, we'll have to turn people away," Pridgeon said, adding that some events might be held at the nearby Rialto Center for the Arts.

The Jazz Festival is free, but there will be staffed entry and exit points to the park.

Pridgeon said festival-goers are encouraged to use MARTA since there is almost no parking at Woodruff Park.

The Jazz Festival is the only one of the four major displaced Class A festivals —- designated because they attract 50,000 people or more —- that is organized by the city. The others are run privately.

Pridgeon said the Jazz Festival would be scaled back to be a Class B festival, attracting 49,999 people or fewer.

On any given afternoon, Woodruff Park is home to an eclectic lot —- business people lunching at silver tables; street vendors selling purses; homeless folks curled up in sleeping bags. But it is nothing like 20 years ago, when beggars made the run-down mostly concrete park more of an eyesore than a destination, park supporters say.

"People who haven't been down here in a long time are surprised at how pretty it is, how nice it is," said Cooper Holland with Central Atlanta Progress, a nonprofit group working to improve Woodruff Park. "It's an urban oasis."

Woodruff is one of Atlanta's "true urban parks," said George Dusenbury, executive director of Park Pride, which helps maintain Atlanta green spaces. "It's a great space, and they're doing a great job maintaining it."

In recent years, Woodruff Park has hosted festivals devoted to oysters, wings and blues and even a volleyball tournament —- but nothing the size of the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Holland said.

"We're a little secret that's not going to be a secret anymore," Holland said.

Holland said she plans to meet with city officials in a few weeks to hear about traffic plans. In the past, some festivals have shut down some or all of Auburn Avenue, Piedmont Avenue, Park Place and one lane of Peachtree Street, she said.

Woodruff Park will give the Jazz Festival "a different flavor than the other [parks] do," Holland said. "We can make it a different jazz fest, but a great one. I have no doubt about that."

FESTIVALS MOVED

Event ....................Date........New location

Atlanta Dogwood Festival..April 4-6 ..Lenox Square

Atlanta Jazz Festival ....May 24-26 ..Woodruff Park

Screen on the Green ......May 29......Centennial Olympic Park

Peachtree Road Race ......July 4......Atlanta Civic Center

Atlanta Pride Festival....July 4-6....Atlanta Civic Center