The National Jazz Festival got hit by something of a perfect storm this year, but that's just the way things go.

Sometimes everything goes your way and sometimes it doesn't, and when a festival is closing in on being half a century old there are going to be some years that work out better than others.

As it happens I thought this year's festival programme – the line-up of bands and the variety of events – was about as good as I've ever seen in Tauranga, possibly the most varied, interesting and comprehensive jazz festival I've ever seen in New Zealand.

But nothing is bullet-proof and just about everything you could think of lined up to conspire against this year's outing pulling the numbers that the festival usually expects.

First of all the festival was during the school holidays. This happens every few years and always results in fewer attendees and, most specifically, fewer entries in the Youth Jazz Competition. But all the big names in school jazz were there so it was simply outstanding that the Tauranga Girls' and Boys' College bands walked away with the big trophies. This says a lot of good things about the standard of music education in Tauranga under such people as Murray Mason (who also runs the Tauranga Big band) and also bodes very well for the future of jazz in the Bay.

The problem with fewer youth bands though is that it means fewer parents come to support their offspring and there is a knock-on effect from there.

Then there was the general weather. Easter being one of those movable feasts which shifts around within a month-long framework depending on the cycle of the moon, it meant that this year the festival was on the last possible dates that Easter can fall. The later in the year the more time it gives festival organisers to organise, but the more chance there is of inclement conditions. It certainly ain't summer anymore when you hit the last week of April.

Actually, I thought it worked out rather better than it might have. Saturday was a little up and down, but Sunday turned out – to everyone's surprise – to be fine and sunny. It was only the Monday when things really hosed down, when only the village was running. It was still a huge shame, but outside shows were relocated inside and the music went on, despite the severe reduction in punters.

Then there was the Christchurch earthquake and its flow-on effects. We have been hearing nothing but financial doom and gloom since February. Petrol is sky-high. The budget is going to cane everyone's asses. Those living on savings (a significant factor in Tauranga) have seen their incomes slashed as interest rates remain piddling. It makes it hard to sell tickets and left several concerts without full houses or even the audiences they deserved.

And, of course, this year saw the re-emergence of the Waiheke Island Jazz Festival under the new stewardship of Nairobi Trio guitarist John Quigley, who attracted some very interesting international names as well as a fine local line-up (many of whom also played in Tauranga).

Add in weather and petrol prices to Waiheke Island and you have a very good reason for Aucklanders to stay in Auckland. It was, as I say, a perfect storm of conditions conspiring against the festival here.

But, despite all that, I thought it was a great festival and that the organisers and the Jazz Society should be rightly proud of what they created. The first order of the Jazz Society constitution is to ‘foster the paying and appreciation of jazz music' and the festival fulfilled that brief brilliantly.

I realise the fact that things probably lost money is important, but I fervently hope that people (inside and outside the Jazz Society) don't get obsessed with that and start trying to assign blame internally or externally.

The organisers deserve nothing but praise for setting up a dazzling event and you can't blame audiences for not attending concerts. If concerts weren't full there are reasons: weather, prices, petrol, school holidays, Christchurch, the budget, Waiheke Island, or perhaps simply that punters weren't sufficiently convinced they'd enjoy them. People have no obligation to go to events simply because they are on; sometimes they go, sometimes they don't.