As we all know, the Jazz Festival is currently rocking Ventnor.
One of the lesser known parts of the festival is the Jazz Bazaar Marquee at Salisbury Gardens on Dudley Road, nestled between the Winter Gardens and the Coastal Visitors Centre (location on Google maps).
Inside there are all sorts of interesting stalls covering local artists, photographers, potters, glassworks, collectables and food & drink – all to the background of great tunes being spun live.
I spent close to two hours in there today, wandering around, soaking up the atmosphere and chatting to the stall holders who were, without exception, lovely. There’s some real quality there.
It was also great to finally get to meet Paddy Wight too, after he’s been contributing photos to the VentnorBlog photo pool for so long.
Stepping out of the back of the tent affords some of the best views of the South Wight coastline, running up towards Steep Hill Cove and beyond. On my second visit today, Unidos, a Latin Jazz Rhythm band from Ryde, were entertaining the jazz-mad patrons to great effect out back too.
If you’re at the festival, you should definitely make the short trip to check it out – or you’ll end up missing out.
PS. Click on any of the images in this post to see larger versions.
