Launching a festival (Moruya 2)

Moruya was also where we announced a new festival of modern jazz for Canberra. The name is not finalised (due to a misunderstanding with the ABC, no less), but the date is Saturday 4 April, and there will be bands on two stages at the Folkus Room from 12noon – 12 midnight. Performance is by invitation, and we are seeking interesting and original offers: original compositions, special performances like replaying renowned albums, retrospectives of famous performers, cross-genre styles like NuJazz, jazz-poetry, breakbeats, that sort of thing. We are seeking something with a theme, or a hook, rather than standards, although no doubt there will be some standards there, too. Get your manuscript and pencils together and make us an offer. We have 4 bands so far, and support of the Jazz School. We are planning for up to 20 bands over 12 hours.

The Folkus Room is comfortable. It’s well located with good parking. There’s food and drink, and places to escape the noise for a while. There are 2 rooms and good PAs. ArtSound’s onside, and is likely to be recording and perhaps broadcasting. Even ABC’s DigJazz Internet Radio is supportive.

The festival is also a charity event. We aim to raise $7K to donate to Wellwishers. Wellwishers is a charity that digs wells for poor villages in dry and poor Ethiopia. $7K will pay for one well to be dug, and change the lives of the people of one village. Help us out by volunteering to play or to assist in other ways. It’s a great cause, and it will be a fascinating day of jazz. Any surplus will go to the performers.

The Committee is Cameron Smith, Courtney Stark, Brenton Homes and Eric Pozza. CJ will advise more soon (when we finalise a name). In the meantime, you can contact the Committee through CJ.

We have also learnt that guys from ADFA are organising a more mainstream jazz festival (the National Capital Jazz Festival) for late November 2009 with the expectation of it being annual. The two festivals will be working together. So that means, an annual modern jazz weekend in April each year, and a full blown mainstream festival in November each year. Exciting! Keep your eyes on CJ and join the CJ Group on Facebook to hear more.

Wellwishers