About 20,000 jazz lovers will fill the streets of Tauranga next month at the Port of Tauranga National Jazz Festival.
The festival, believed to be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, will run from March 23 to April 1 with more than 20 events taking place across Tauranga.
The event, which celebrates its 61st anniversary this year, features performances by some of the best jazz musicians in Australasia and will have three open-air stages for the first time.
The line-up this year includes Australian jazz musician James Morrison, New Zealand artist Louis Baker, Tauranga’s own Akash Dutta, and the Christchurch-based All Girl Big Band.
Port of Tauranga National Jazz Festival manager Marc Anderson said the event and the city welcomed the “relaxed, cool, and grooving jazz festival crowds with open arms”.
“I think the history of the jazz festival is such that it brings people [in] from out of town and, to a certain extent, it brings people from Tauranga together [too],” he told the Bay of Plenty Times.
“It’s a well-known festival. It brings a lot to the CBD and it brings a lot to Tauranga.”
About 700 musicians would be performing at the festival including students performing in the youth competition.
Anderson said the not-for-profit organisation was generating hundreds of thousands of dollars which went back into the community.
“We’ve got a really good relationship with a lot of bars and restaurants and accommodation providers and retailers.”
He said about 20 bars and restaurants were taking part with live music.
He said the appeal of jazz music came from its influence on other genres of music.
“What I love about jazz music is that every type of music is related to jazz. There’s funk, blues, even rock and roll.
“They’re all derivatives [of] jazz.”
He said jazz was a “really wide genre” of music.
“It’s literally something for everybody.”
Tourism Bay of Plenty head of destination marketing Loretta Crawford said the festival was unique and a much-loved tradition in the city’s annual event calendar.
She said it offered a fantastic incentive for visitors to travel to the coastal Bay of Plenty and provided a “significant economic boost and positive flow-on effects for accommodation, hospitality, retail, and tourism operators”.
“The timing of this festival, during the autumn shoulder visitor season, is particularly beneficial because it supports the sustainability of our local economy by bringing through a steady stream of new visitors and customers soon after the highs of the peak summer months.
“We hope that everyone involved in this year’s jazz festival and their local and out-of-town supporters will make the most of what our region has to offer.”
Tauranga City Council venues and events manager Nelita Byrne said “Port of Tauranga National Jazz Festival brings so many benefits to the local community beyond its exceptional music.
“As one of New Zealand’s largest jazz gatherings, it attracts music lovers from across Aotearoa, boosting economic activity and fostering a lively community atmosphere as people come together to enjoy both Tauranga City and the music.”
Correction: Loretta Crawford is Tourism Bay of Plenty’s head of destination marketing, not head of destination management as previously reported. The information was incorrectly supplied.
Michaela Pointon is an NZME reporter based in the Bay of Plenty and was formerly a feature writer.