Other drawcards included festival regulars Kokomo (Tauranga), Blue Monkey Racket (New Plymouth) and Indigo Blue (Auckland).
Mrs May said this year's festival would be the 29th. It would have been the 30th but one year was cancelled due to clash with the Sydney Olympics.
Auckland's Lex Pistols, a group of swing-loving lawyers, had played every festival to date and would be back again this year.
The bands will also perform free on the streets of Russell and Paihia from noon to 4pm on Friday and 9.30-11am on Saturday and Sunday.
Entry is by $50 badge, available at the venues, Paihia i-Site and Wards Music in Whangarei. It includes a free shuttle between the venues in Paihia and Haruru Falls and a discount on the Russell ferry. A $30 day ticket is also available.
The Northland bands performing are Basin City Big Band, Bella A Capella, Bootleg, Inertia, Joe Carberry Swingtet, Kerikeri High School Jazz Band, Late Night Meat Sandwich, Riverhead Slide, Russell Ukelele Orchestra, Sandy Beach and the Coconuts, Soulshine, The Brian Henderson Trio and Barbie Davidson, The Limit and Two Kay.
See www.jazz-blues.co.nz for the full programme.
Climate talk
The Greens are holding a talk in Kerikeri this evening about the effects of climate change on Northland.
The discussion will focus on practical measures Northlanders can take to adapt to changing climate, such as switching to drought-resistant crops, gearing up the Fire Service to cope with more and fiercer wildfires, and preparing for higher sea levels in coastal communities.
Speakers Kennedy Graham, a Green MP, and Robert Bingham, a climate change expert from Kerikeri, will be followed by an open forum.
Called "Climate change: How worried should we be?", the talk starts at 7pm on August 6 at Kingston House on Hone Heke Rd.
Other speakers will discuss civil defence implications, electric cars and solar power.
Meet the candidates
Mid North folk have two chances to meet their election candidates thanks to evening forums hosted by the Kaikohe Business Association.
Tonight, August 6, candidates vying for the Te Tai Tokerau seat will answer a series of set questions; on September 10 it will be the turn of candidates for the Northland electorate. Both meetings start at 7pm in the Senior Citizens Hall on Tawanui Rd, Kaikohe.
Kids helping kids
A Young Enterprise team at Kerikeri's Springbank School is helping pupils at a primary school in Kenya by donating stationery and backpacks.
The team of Year 10 students, who go by the name Ecovado, is making quality soaps using an avocado by-product.
Because the avocados are grown in Kenya, where the Bay of Islands avocado oil company Olivado is based, the students are also running a campaign to help pupils at Mirira Primary School in Kenya.
Their aim is to provide a backpack full of stationery to every child by the start of the 2015 school year. With Kenyan families living on an average of US$2 a day, school stationery can be prohibitively expensive.
Olivado operations manager Andrew McLaren visited the school on the team's behalf to meet the principal, research stationery needs, and discuss distribution.
Anyone who wants to help the Springbank students in their quest by donating $20 to buy a backpack can call the school on (09) 407 5236. The team is made up of Samantha McMillan, Ally Standing and Jessica Prak-Khin.
GE talk
Former Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is speaking at two public meetings hosted by GE Free Northland next week.
On August 12, starting at 6.45pm, she will speak at Kingston House on Kerikeri's Hone Heke Rd; the following night, from 7pm on August 13, she will be at the the Old Stone Butter Factory, off Laurie Hall Lane in Whangarei.
Her subject will be the need for District Plan rules controlling the outdoor use of GMOs. The discussion will be followed by a screening of the abridged version of Genetic Roulette.
Hot seat chef
A Kerikeri chef has been given the tough role of picking the country's best hospitality students.
Tobias Wilkinson, a tutor at the Culinary Institute of New Zealand on Waipapa Rd, will judge the culinary creations served up at this year's Nestlé Toque d'Or competition.
Twelve teams from around the country, each comprising two culinary and one service student, have to cook and serve six covers of a three-course meal in two-and-a-half hours.
"Success at Nestlé Toque d'Or requires seamless teamwork, creative flair and service, and ruthless attention to detail. The team that can deliver all of this on the day will take out the top award," Mr Wilkinson said.
The competition will be held at the Vodafone Events Centre in Auckland on August 18.
* Do you have news or an upcoming event you'd like to see in this column? Send it to us, including your full contact details, to baynews@northernadvocate.co.nz.
