Jazz fest attendance goes up this year
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/06/2002 (8783 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
GOOD weather and a strong opening weekend boosted attendance at this year’s Jazz Winnipeg Festival, executive producer Dave Sherman said yesterday.
But while overall attendance was up, to about 35,000 people from an average 30,000, the performance series was down a bit, Sherman added.
There was only one big show this year, bassist Charlie Haden and his Nocturne project, and no act like last year’s blues guitarist Buddy Guy that drew a broader audience.
“That’s what happens when you don’t have a singer” as a headline show, Sherman said.
The festival should make a small profit or break even this year, he said, but all the numbers aren’t in yet. “Overall, it was a pretty good year.”
The Haden show, the headliner at Pantages Playhouse Theatre, made money, Sherman said, as did singer Molly Johnson, whose first show at Prairie Theatre Exchange sold out and a second was added.
Sherman said the second show sold about 200 of the 340 seats, but a second show costs less “and it gave all those people a chance to see her.”
There were a little over 1,000 people at the Haden show.
Rain held off for the opening weekend events at Old Market Square, Sherman said, and attendance for those free concerts was up. On the Sunday night, dancers filled King Street.
“The wristband worked great this year,” he said. Wristbands could be bought for $10 a night and allowed festival-goers to get in to any of the Late Nite Series club shows. This was their second year and “sales were up a lot,” he said, with more venues involved this year.
The Groove Series shows at the Pyramid were strong, he said.
Jazz Winnipeg has an annual budget of $800,000 that includes the jazz fest, the Urban Groove Festival in the fall, which this year is presenting James Brown, and An Evening of Manitoba Jazz, which presents the annual CanWest Global Jazz Achievement Award. This year’s show, on Nov. 8, is a tribute to Kerry Kluner, the former Winnipeg psychiatrist, trumpeter and band leader who died last fall in San Diego at 45.