[Dixielandjazz] Greater Connecticut Trad Jazz Festival

[Stephen G Barbone]

Dear List mates:

As opposed to canceling their Trad festival outright, like Olympic  
did, The GCTJF has decided to cancel the 2011 Festival and get to work  
now on producing a 2012 Festival. Further information may be found at  
their website; http://www.greatctjazz.org/  See their letter sent to  
me today,  below:

----- start letter

"Dear Steve,"

"We are writing to you today to relate some news.  At our December 4  
Board meeting we determined that the state of the economy and Festival  
finances would make it impossible to put together a Festival for July  
2011.  We also voted to commit to presenting the Festival every two  
years, beginning with the 2012 Festival."

"In the discussion of the pros and cons, all of us felt that it was  
better to cancel the 2011 Festival and work hard on building the 2012  
Festival, rather than go broke trying to produce the 2011 event.  We  
must emphasize that we are still solvent!  We want to focus our  
efforts in the near term on solidifying our finances and attracting  
sponsors so that we can continue to produce a truly great event!"

"This decision was made after much serious discussion.  All of us on  
the Board of Directors want to see this Festival survive long into the  
future.  At this point, moving to a once-every-two-years event was the  
only way to achieve that goal."

"Ray Ross, Executive Director
203-284-0865
rross92239 at sbcglobal.net"

"Ken Chant, Board Secretary
860-632-7848
kcjazz2001 at yahoo.com"

---- end letter

In this economic climate, it is easy to understand why an event,  
whether jazz festival or other, may be cancelled if there is not a lot  
of sponsor money. One of the equestrian events I am  involved with as  
a board member, barely managed to  survive 2010 and will proceed in  
2011. We jumped on the challenge of getting new sponsor money to  
replace that which we lost due to decreased profitability of some of  
our former corporate sponsors. That plus staging fund raisers.

In the case of this event, as well as with most jazz festivals, ticket  
sales etc., do not cover the expenses. And as Bart wrote  
(dixiejazzdata at aol.com) on December 19, Events such as these need  
to "adjust to the times and the economy."