Two new big bands from abroad, two new venues and two new sponsors are combining to provide take-off for this summer’s Marlborough International Jazz Festival.
And with £45,000 raised in sponsorship already despite the recession “everything is going splendidly,” festival director Nick Fogg told Marlborough News Online.
“We have been through a period when survival has been success in itself. And we’re still here while many others have gone under in the recession.
“Things economically are now looking up and I hope we will be looking up even more than most to give Marlborough another fine festival.”
The new bands so far booked are the Budapest Ragtime Band from Hungary, and the Hot Serenaders, from Bratislava, on the banks of the Danube in Slovakia, the later having played in the UK before as well as in the Czech Republic, France and Hungary.
“And they are supported by female vocal trio who are rather fabulous,” said Nick. “We are an international jazz festival. So we do seek new performers from abroad every year.”
But there will be too the familiar talent of Clare Teal, the uncrowned queen of the British jazz scene, who will be giving a concert in the festival’s giant Priory Gardens marquee, and the two new venues for this year’s festival and the return from last year of Georgie Fame, the doyen, at 70, rhythm, blues and jazz singer.
New locations for the festival, which runs over the weekend of Jul 18,19 and 20, will be the car park at the Castle and Ball hotel and the car park behind the ASK restaurant, both in the High Street.
“One of the criticisms of the festival in recent times was that the focus of the festival has been down in The Parade area of Marlborough rather than the High Street,” explained Nick. “Now we have two splendid new venues both in the High Street.”
And the two main new sponsors are the Blanchard Collective, the antiques establishment based in Froxfield, and the IT company Kerridge Commercial Systems, of Hungerford.
“The sponsorship round is really going well,” added Nick. “We have so far raised £45,000 mainly from past sponsor, of which £8,000 is from the new ones, which is pretty healthy. We need at least another £10,000, but if it was £20,000 then we would be sitting comfortably, whereas on £10,000 we would be running on a shoestring, as always.”
