The bad news for the Ventnor Jazz office just keeps coming – we really wish it wasn’t, as the recent years, the festivals were very good for the town.
The CP — which consistently features the unfurling stories about the Jazzers, in prominent positions in the paper — tells us that Wightlink has decided not to support this April’s Jazz festival.
This will not only increase costs for the organisers, as they’d previously been able to get the performers to the Island for nowt; but the free advertising that the Festival banners on the Wightlink ferry terminals will significantly reduce profile for them.
If that weren’t a big enough blow, we hear that the Musician’s Union have put both the Jazz and Folk festivals on their Ask Us First list. Two of the organisers, Phil and Geri, are also individually named on the list, but strangely, the others involved with putting the event on are somehow left off the list.
As with all previous reports in the CP, Phil Snellen claims that there is no problem, this time saying “Matters relating to the jazz festival and been resolved by either complete payment or commercial arrangement.”
It’s apparent that the Ventnor Town Council has forgiven the Jazz office — you may have seen the praise-laden letter in the Chronicle a few weeks ago — allowing them to use the Winter Gardens (but insisting on money up front) and sanctioning the use of Salisbury Gardens, along Dudley Road.
Stay tuned for more news shortly.
