Wangaratta Festival of Jazz
| Wangaratta Festival of Jazz | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Jazz |
| Dates | always in October/November the weekend before Melbourne Cup Day |
| Location(s) |
 Wangaratta, Victoria
|
| Years active | 1990 – present |
| Website | |
| http://www.wangarattajazz.com/ | |
The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz is an annual festival of jazz and blues, founded in 1990 and held in the town of Wangaratta, 2.5 hours from Melbourne in the north-east of Victoria, Australia.
Since its founding the festival has grown to include 90 events and over 350 national and international artists performing each year. The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz also hosts the National Jazz Awards, Youth Jazz Workshops, master classes and events throughout Wangaratta and surrounding wine regions.
In 1999 the festival won a National Tourism Award and was inducted into the Victorian Tourism Hall of Fame. In 2000 the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz became a Victorian Hallmark Event.
The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz was conceived in 1989, when a group of local business people suggested the idea to the Wangaratta City Council. The Council funded a feasibility study which concluded that, although there were numerous music festivals in Australia, a point of difference could be achieved with one based on modern and contemporary jazz. It was also recommended that such a festival be built around an international-standard jazz piano competition.
The first festival was staged in 1990. It was a much smaller event than it is now; attendances were around 2500 or so, and total box-office was around $25,000. But the event was regarded as a success, and was hailed in ‘The Age’ and ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ (by Sydney jazz critic John Clare) as "the best festival of its kind ever held in Australia". Such feedback helped convince the Council that the event had a future, and was worth supporting through its early years.
A central feature of the festival has always been the National Jazz Awards, a competition designed to encourage and promote young musicians. (It was initially run as a competition for pianists from 1990-92, the format has since changed to feature a different instrument each year).
The Festival grew rapidly through the 1990s, and stabilised in size and format through its second decade. In its first four years, the festival featured just one international guest each year; now, several international bands or soloists are featured each year, often in collaborative projects with Australian artists.
In 2000, Tourism Victoria recognised the festival as a Victorian Hallmark Event, recognising the cultural and economic significance of the festival to the Wangaratta region and Victoria.
In its early years, the Festival was managed by a sub-committee organised and underwritten by the local Council. In 1995, the Festival was incorporated as a not-for-profit organisation, and has since been run as an independent body. The Rural City Of Wangaratta remains a key stakeholder, as does the Victorian Government (which provides funding via Arts Victoria and Tourism Victoria), and the Australian Government via the Australia Council for the Arts.
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Wikipedia