[Dixielandjazz] Jazz festival promotion - something new from Jazzfest New...

[David Richoux]

Tom, and all -

Jazzfest has always had "Ringers" to draw the local crowd - musicians 
that don't fit into the categories of Jazz (Modern or Old,) 
Cajun/Zydeco, Blues, Swamp Rock, Gospel or local Soul/Klezmer/Whatever. 
I usually just avoid going to the stages where the "Headliners" are and 
continue with the local acts. I think the locals fans see those acts 
enough during the rest of the year but they will show up to jazzfest 
for a "Big Name..."  (and that is when the food/beer booth lines away 
from the main stage areas are shortest! I sure wish Sacto could get 
food of similar quality ;-)

I have never been to FQF - again, conflicts with local scheduled gigs, 
but I expect that I will do it sometime soon.
Dave Richoux
On Apr 8, 2005, at 9:10 PM, TCASHWIGG at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 4/8/05 2:01:50 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> tubaman at batnet.com writes:
>
>> I don't know if the same ad is
>> being done in other regional areas - the Bay Area has always had a
>> major presence at jazzfest  but there has never been such an
>> advertisement here before that I can recall.
>>
>> Is the festival still suffering the post 9/11 blues? Is attendance 
>> from
>> people outside the NO region slipping?
>>
>>
>
> Hi Dave:
>
> I too have never seen such an ad in this area.  Probably attributable 
> to the
> Mayor of New Orleans campaign to boost tourism in New Orleans 
> thrusting Music
> in the forefront again as it's major attraction alongside the FOOD.
>
> The past couple of years have seen at least in my opinion more big 
> Name Rock
> acts on the bill than Jazz stars.  For instance last year one of the 
> main
> headliners was the Steve Miller Band from San Francisco, who has never 
> been
> anywhere close to being a Jazz act, even though he can play a mean 
> Blues guitar if
> he wants to.  I believe they also had Carlos Santana last year and 
> Bonnie Raitt
> and similar acts.  The major hurt factor last year was terrible 
> weather that
> rained out at least one day of the event totally and made the 
> following days a
> mud bath akin to Woodstock.
>
> The French Quarter Festival held two weeks before however had beautiful
> weather and 400,000 attendees and it was a Free event to the public 
> and showcased
> almost exclusively New Orleans acts.
>
>
> Just my opinion anyway.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tom Wiggins
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