Big budget festival wins acclaim

Tauranga's 50th National Jazz Festival has been hailed a phenomenal success even though the "jury was out" on whether it would break even.

Jazz Festival director Arne Herrmann said the 50th anniversary festival, which cost $1.5 million to stage, was by far the biggest and most successful.

It was nearly twice as large in terms of the budget and programme as the previous three professionally-run festivals.

"It was a phenomenal success."

Adding to the nerves for organisers was the threat of a cyclone which looked to be bearing down on the Bay a week ago.

However, the wild weather never arrived.

"I remember thinking, 'You have got to be kidding, this can't be true'. People must have been praying because all of a sudden the weather passed and it completely missed us."

Clear skies ensured "fantastic" turnouts at the jazz village in Tauranga's Historic Village and a crowd of 4500 for the Earth, Wind & Fire, Patti Austin and Keb Mo open-air concert at The Domain.

Mr Herrmann said it was amazing to be in The Domain at the start of the concert with a beautiful sunset on the left hand side and a full moon rising on the right.

"Patti Austin took the stage and I had to pinch myself: Is this really happening?"

He said acts like Earth, Wind & Fire, Patti Austin, Kurt Elling, Eric Marienthal and Klaus Doldinger elevated the festival to a new dimension.

"There was a huge emotional response to the Klaus Doldinger concert."

But even the big-name concerts were not sellouts and Mr Herrmann said the jury was out on whether the festival would break even. It would be a big week's work to reconcile accounts.

"In an ideal world, we would like to have sold them out."

He said the less-than-capacity crowds could be due to the choice of very good concerts and people not being able to afford to see all the acts.

Mr Herrmann said the festival was staged not only for the love of jazz but because of how it contributed to a healthy community. The town was so completely booked out that locals who were out of town for the long weekend became a godsend when they offered visitors their homes for the duration of the festival.

"We knew we would be pushing the envelope for the infrastructure of the city. I guess we maxed it out."