[Dixielandjazz] Bude Festival 2012

[Judy Eames]

On 10/11/2011 19:40, Bert Thompson wrote:
> Some good news about the Bude Festival next year on<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-15650413>: Bude Jazz Festival 2012 will be run by town's jazz clubA new jazz festival in Cornwall will take place in 2012 after organisers of an annual event decided to skip a year.

It's good news certainly that the club has decided to keep the festival 
going and I hope it's a success. BUT it's  been discussed ad nauseum on 
this list, that the fan base for "New Orleans jazz" (which has narrower 
definition in the UK than in the US) is dwindling so I do have doubts 
about  the decision to go back to the festival's origins.

To put the record a bit straighter Rachel Hayward; the festival director 
is not part of a "firm" she's a musician who was invited by John Minnion 
to take over his directorship a few years ago .  She has done a good job 
attracting younger bands and younger people have started to come to the 
festival to dance but they aren't /devotees /and tend to come for a day 
or two rather than the whole week.  Rachel is a friend and musical 
colleague, I know that she's been flagging up the financial concerns for 
some time; maybe she didn't shout loudly enough or to the right people 
but it really shouldn't have come as such a surprise to some of the 
people concerned,


There's a big difference between staging a festival here and in the US.  
I've just been to the wonderful Sun Valley, Idaho festival which is a 
musical and economic miracle;  to give one example, the 4 outlet 
supermarket chain contributed $3000; contrast this with Bude town 
council that donated £100 in 2010 and you might begin to see the 
problem.  At Sun Valley,  there's a long list of companies and 
individuals who get a mention in the programme for contributions of 
$1000 or more.  We don't have a sponsorship culture in the UK....having 
said that some of the town businesses are hugely supportive, we love 
playing in the town and hope that we can continue to do so while we 
still have breath!

That's all,

Jude

jude at judyeames.co.uk