[Dixielandjazz] Music Festivals

[Stephen G Barbone]

I think there are Music Festivals and then there are "Music Festivals".

In my neck of the woods, the smaller towns sponsor several varieties of Music Festivals. In local towns around Philadelphia, for example, there are quite a few Blues Festivals  and Jazz Festivals among the many Rock festivals. The local business association in each town sponsors them. The get the local bars and restaurants to commit to having bands perform on a given night. Then the association sells all event passes (wrist bands) for say $20 and you can visit all or some of these venues and hear the music without having to buy a drink. Naturally most folks buy drinks also.

Barbone Street in quartet and sextet form has played quite a few of these during the past 10 years. And we've always been paid our usual performance fee. One local town has successfully run a "Jazz By Night" festival for the past 15 years, in the bar /restaurant venues.  We played at 5 of them, from the first one to last year's event.,

The thing that interested me about the NY Times article is that music festivals are profitable when done right. And they seem to involve the local bars, clubs and restaurants. Similar to the local festivals described above. I also think that if you promote a jazz / swing / Dixieland Band to these festivals you can get a booking or two at a reasonable pay scale.

Interestingly enough, West Chester PA just held its first Jazz Festival, organized by a promoter. It was all smooth jazz, had a few top players with ticket fees at the University concert hall and a bunch of local bands playing in the park, free to listeners. Not near as profitable as the other music festivals in this area. I didn't even know about it until two days before it happened. Had it been promoted properly, and supported in the local bars etc., it would have been a much better event both profit and attendance wise.

I wonder how many other towns in the USA have such events?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone