OK. It's time I talked about the Jazz Festival.

Now that the dust is settling and everyone has been paid for their services (which happened almost immediately but got no coverage) I'd like to look into the future of the currently troubled festival.

This year's model was, as I'm sure ninety per cent of people attending would agree, a fantastic event. There was, if you searched through the programme, an extraordinary amount of remarkable music, much of it cheaply or freely available downtown and at the village.

But having an impressive programme is not the only measure of a festival. Importantly, the headline concerts, both at the domain and Baycourt, were once again unsuccessful at attracting audiences, leaving the Tauranga Jazz Society in dubious financial waters.

Got it wrong

It is hard not to conclude from this that the organisers spectacularly misjudged the Tauranga audience - either in the choice of acts and/or the pricing of concerts - or were simply unable to properly promote the booked acts. The similar lack of attendance at the previous year's headline shows by Trombone Shorty suggests that lessons were not learned.
But the approach seemed to be to aim for the stars, even if there was no indication that the paying public wanted that. The directors appear to have lost sight of two important things: that expansion in a festival of this sort needs to be demand driven; and that the festival is happening in Tauranga.
(There is also the broader issue of whether this year's approach was the appropriate way to celebrate the prestigious 50th year. More on that another time.)
Taking on the second part first, I just repeat – this is Tauranga. It's not Auckland or Wellington, places with far bigger populations and far bigger jazz-educated audiences. And far more people with disposable income.

Lead the way

Bearing that in mind, it means that audiences here need to be gently led towards shows and that artists need to be heavily promoted. The idea that people will pay $80 to go to an overseas artist they've never heard of was comprehensively disproved by the Trombone Shorty shows. No-one had heard of him, no-one wanted to pay to see a trombone player they'd never heard of, and the directors signally failed to show local audiences why he was worth the money (and he was!).
Exactly the same thing happened this year for concerts by Kurt Elling and Klaus Doldinger.
Actually, I thought promotion this year was not just poor, it was at times actively destructive. Talking to audience members during the festival it became immediately clear that many of them thought the Big Birthday Bash cost $165. There had been such a fuss made about the expensive 'gold ticket” allocation that significant numbers never realised there were cheaper options. Strange but depressingly true.
Most worryingly, given the incredibly poor attendance of locals at the big outdoor concert – only 1100 people from a disappointing 4500 - it would appear that the Jazz Festival is losing the special relationship it used to have with the general population of Tauranga.

Suggestions

To regain this and restore the mana of the festival I would suggest that three things need to happen.
Firstly, Arne Herman and Liam Ryan need to step down as directors of the festival. I'm surprised that they didn't publicly do so almost immediately. Alternatively the jazz society needs to terminate their contracts.
Secondly, the society should arrange a time payment plan to return the $90,000 loan from council that underwrote the Earth Wind & Fire concert. This could be over five years or even more, but some element of trust needs to be restored and responsibility needs to be taken.
Finally, a new structure and direction needs to be announced for the next festival.
All these things are possible and I have no real fears for the future: new jazz society president Darryl Haigh is a man of smarts and integrity and is actively working to get things back on track. I hope he gets the support and encouragement that he deserves.
It's very easy to be negative about an event of this sort, especially in hard times. There are bound to be blips on a 50 year path, but it would be a shame to forget all that is so good about Tauranga's National Jazz Festival.