At this time of year there seem to be two things continually happening – festivals and awards.
I wrote a little about festivals last week and there is indeed a veritable deluge of them, from local events such as next weekend's Acoustic Music Festival, to WOMAD, Ragamuffin, the Grassroots Festival and a stack more.

This week, and every few weeks from now until Easter, I'll have a look at the biggest one here, the event that once again is beginning to define Tauranga in visitors' eyes, The National Jazz Festival.
But there are also those awards. Director's Guild Awards, Writer's Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, BAFTAs, Grammys and – coming soon – the Oscars. Next week we'll visit Oscarland and try to spot which awards The King's Speech won't win.
In amongst the general silliness that is the Grammys, few people noticed that one of the stars of the Easter jazz festival lost out on an award. Sadly Trombone Shorty was pipped at the post by veteran bass player Stanley Clarke who took out the Best Contemporary Jazz Album award.
Given how many tens of thousands of jazz albums are released every year even being nominated is pretty high cotton, but how can you trust the judges when even that nice little Bieber boy didn't win?
Trombone Shorty, however, did score significantly better at another award ceremony which took place at the end of last month. That was the Best of the Beat Awards, the baby of OffBeat magazine, the journal of Louisiana music and culture. What with that state containing the birthplace of jazz it's basically awards for the best of New Orleans music.
Trombone Shorty (real name: Troy Andrews) walked away with no fewer than five awards, the biggest haul in the event's history. He picked up Artist of the Year, Album of the Year (for the one that missed out to Stanley Clarke, Backatown), Best R&B/Funk Artist, Best R&B/Funk Album, and Best Trombonist.
Now I realise that most people in Tauranga have never heard Trombone Shorty play. But you don't win those sort of awards in New Orleans without making some serious music. Last year's headline act at the Jazz Festival, Dr John, grabbed a few himself – Best Blues Artist, Best Songwriter and Best Blues Album.
And, if you don't know Trombone Shorty, there are a few clips of him kicking around on YouTube, including a killer performance at the Pre-Tel part of the Grammys (the bit before the TV broadcast starts) which I can't for the life of me find a link to right now.
Do look him up though, because he really is that good. I realise, and I'm sure the organisers of the festival realise, that a trombone player is possibly a bit of a hard sell to general audiences. Don't let that put you off. This man is an astonishingly exciting player and is bringing his own five piece band, Orleans Avenue, all of whom are simply sensational in their own right.
Trombone Shorty is playing two gigs at the festival, firstly the Hurricane Party on the Sunday night, which is the big dance party that also includes Sola Rosa and dDub. That happens at Classic Flyers at the Mount and the event was a huge success last year. (Actually I think this is one of the organisers' great initiatives; spreading the festival to a wider age group and allowing for a broader range of musical styles. Full marks!)
Then he's in church on Monday, playing the Holy Trinity along with his full band – that's somewhere I certainly intend to be.
And, moving along a little, after writing recently about the festival's travails and rebirth in the mid-nineties I had an email from Jennifer Murray, one of the key figures from those days, who confirmed the extraordinary growth that took place.
She writes: ‘The first year I was involved (the second it was downtown), our total festival budget was $11,000 and the Montana Naming Rights was just $5000. Four years later, the budget was $450,000!'
That's remarkable stuff, and it's been onward and upward ever since. If you haven't yet checked out a programme for this year you don't know what you're missing.