[Dixielandjazz] Victoria Hot Jazz Jubilee on a quiet Sunday evening

[Len Nielsen]

Acting on a rumor that the Victoria festival was getting restarted I
began looking for contact information or just to verify the rumor. As
you can see by the following excerpt from a letter that I sent to the
administrators any information was hard to find.


<<<<<<
Just heard the great news that you are putting Victoria back into the
real music scene again. Wonderful!!!

I tried getting info about it from Chamber of Commerce, Tourism
Victoria, Google, (you aren't mentioned on the first 15 pages except for
on "Igor's" site) and various friends who are in the know. It wasn't
until I emailed Toni Blodgett at Canus that I could find you. You have
some work ahead of you to become known again.>>>>>>>


I received this reply, in part. I have deleted info that I cannot
include without the writer's permission.

<<<<<<<
Thank you so much for you very kind note. I apologize for the delay in
responding but so much is happening so quickly and unfortunately, both
Chris and I are still working full time. The good news is that I am done
at the end of August and can dedicate my days to the many jazz-related
things that need doing. Perhaps we should  never have started this
project while working but money is definitely a factor!

Our website has just gone up, as you know. Google should be
acknowledging us soon, but it doesn't include us until they get a number
of requests. We hope to have a major press release at the beginning of
September, but we couldn't really do that as long as I was working.  At
that time we will also be involved with the Chamber of
Commerce.

You may know quite a bit about us but if not, here is a little bit of
background - I have had 20 years in non-profit administration, including
fundraising. Chris is Past President of Harbourside Rotary and was the
MC at the big jazz venue for the TerrifVic Jazz Party.  Our passion for
Jazz has taken us to 6 to 9 festivals each year and consequently have
built many valuable relationships throughout North America. We formed a
non-profit society in March, along with Paul White. He had the perfect
society name which we used, and that was The Classic Jazz Guild. Then
Paul had to step down for personal reasons, the most obvious one being
that he lives on Saturna Island and travels frequently. It just wasn't
going to be possible that he could be that accessible. Anyway, knowing
how attached he was to the name Classic Jazz Guild, we offered to give
the name back to him, and then we filed for name change to the Society.
That led to us becoming Van Isle Live Music Preservation Society, which
seems to be opening a lot of other doors to us, including the
possibility of getting a charitable status. Memberships are $20 and so
far we have about 40 members. It took us
until July to get the society name changed, and so we have not been
pushing memberships until that all name changing got cleared up.

There seems to be a lot of interest in helping out, including US residents.

Thank you so much for sending out a message to the Dixieland Jazz mail
list. We have had a few responses which is quite exciting.

I would appreciate it if you could get back to me, and let me know how
you would like to be involved. We had a very small Board of three people
and are just now are expanding to twelve, with each person responsible
for their area of expertise or interest. Lots of
opportunities!

I have attached an email version of our flyer in case it might come in
handy. Thanks again, Len, for your interest in the Victoria Hot Jazz
Jubilee and I look forward to hearing from you.

Leslea Kent
Victoria Hot Jazz Jubilee
(250) 882-JAZZ       (250) 882-5299>>>>>>

You can see by Leslea's letter and their web site that they have made
some very real progress considering their working status and other
activities.

When I posted their web site info to the DJML I also posted the info to
a number of personal friends and without a single exception there was
absolutely no visible response. It seemed as if the info had gone into a
vacuum. Therefore it was gratifying to hear from Leslea that she had
some encouraging enquiries.

My latest check with Google shows the" Victoria Hot Jazz Jubilee" at the
top of the listing as it should be.

My thanks for the responses from the DJML. We have already played a
small part in the anticipated  success of this festival.

Len Nielsen

Victoria