[Dixielandjazz] Sad News

[Stephen G Barbone]

Dixieland silenced: Jazz in the Olympics festival canceled -- for good

PORT ANGELES -- The Jazz in the Olympics festival is no more.

Festival Director Gary Sorenson announced Friday that the Jazz in the  
Olympics Society will not hold the event featuring Dixieland and swing  
jazz this spring, or ever again.

Sorenson said that the organization canceled its scheduled April 1-3  
dates because it will not be able to use the Red Lion Hotel as one of  
its venues as it had planned.

And since the event will not be held in 2011, the organization won't  
try it again in 2012, he said.

"You can't jump-start a festival," said Sorenson, 75, of Sequim.

"It's tough to get people back."

The festival -- which drew an estimated attendance of between 2,200  
and 2,500 earlier this year -- started as an annual event in 1999.

The loss of the Red Lion conference rooms, which Sorenson attributed  
to upcoming renovations, was a deal breaker because the festival could  
offer only seven bands, instead of the 10 it has been advertising  
"across the nation," the director said.

Reimbursements will be made.

The festival had planned to also use the Vern Burton Community Center,  
Port Angeles council chambers and the Elks Lodge.

Sorenson said Masonic Temple is the only other building that is big  
enough with a stage and dance floor.

It won't be used because of poor acoustics, he said.

Sorenson also said that venues in Sequim -- where the event was  
initially held until 2000 -- will not be used because it would create  
too large of a distance between locations.

"You can't make people drive between Port Angeles and Sequim," he  
said. "That will not work."

The festival ran into trouble last year when the Port Angeles Regional  
Chamber of Commerce decided to no longer run it on the Jazz in the  
Olympics Society's behalf.

The chamber had run it for the preceding three years.

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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis at peninsuladailynews.com 
.