National Jazz Festival strikes the right chord

National Jazz Festival strikes the right chord with Easter crowd

Tauranga, 4 April, 2018: A bumper long weekend crowd from far and wide, fine weather and sold-out shows has seen the National Jazz Festival Tauranga hit the right notes this Easter.

The curtain came down on the festival’s 56th edition on Easter Monday, with an estimated 30,000 people kept entertained down on The Strand over the long weekend thanks to the diverse range of events and concerts.

The festival, the longest running of its type in the Southern Hemisphere, saw jazz fans treated to six days of live music with some 250 musicians performing across six events.

“We were blessed with great weather all weekend which ensured that Tauranga came out and enjoyed the jazz,” says Festival general manager Mandy Ryan.

“There was such a buzz around the city over the weekend and it is great to be able to help fly the flag for both Tauranga and jazz with what is one of the city’s flagship events.”

Mrs Ryan says it was impressive to see The Strand and Waterfront transformed into a colourful hub of live music and other entertainment across Saturday, Sunday and Monday with the Downtown Carnival and TECT Big Band Bonanza.

While all other concerts, featuring a star-studded line-up of local and international musicians, were all well attended and received rave reviews.

This included the Baycourt concert series which saw an unprecedented three sold-out shows in advance of the festival opening – Caitriona Fallon, Melbourne’s Shirazz and High Society.

“Alongside this success our National Youth Jazz Competition was the biggest held in the 41 years of the competition,” says Mrs Ryan.

“The audience attending the Hurricane Party at Classic Flyers Museum enjoyed the atmosphere created by the vintage airplanes as well as the wonderful jazz and blues music provided by Shirazz, Kokomo and Sydney’s Isaiah B Brunt.”

Mrs Ryan adds it wasn’t just locals enjoying the jazz festivities with people from the Hawke’s Bay, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch making the trip to the Bay of Plenty.

Statistics which highlight not only the festival’s long-standing appeal but a growing popularity in jazz and its musicians.

“Overall it was a great weekend and we can’t wait for 2019.”

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