Help Save Swanage Jazz Festival
We like to support anything that keeps music and entertainment live and so does Guitar maker Fibonacci who is backing a new Kickstarter campaign to help save Swanage Jazz Festival. Fibonacci has highlighted the issue in its latest newsletter, encouraging the industry and its customers to donate to the cause. Based in the seaside town of Swanage, the Jazz Festival has played host to hundreds of musicians since 1990. It was started by Roger Horton, with a small marquee, a small indoor venue, and around 300 tickets.
As the non-profit event grew with support from PRS Music Foundation, 90 per cent of the costs were made up from ticket sales. The celebration of jazz has now fallen on hard times. Nigel Price, the festival’s newest ingoing director, has set up a Kickstarter page to help fund the festival.
“My name is Nigel Price and I’m a jazz guitar player who has played at Swanage Jazz Festival many times. This year, when I heard the festival was coming to a close after 28 years I just couldn’t stand to hear it and offered to take over the directorship,” explains Price on the crowdfunding page.
“My offer has been accepted and I am making it my mission to see that this great festival continues. I have no personal links with Swanage. I am here because I will not let another festival, another celebration of humanity, die on my watch without trying to do something about it.
“It has became apparent that, due to unavoidable VAT impositions on ticket sales, the festival has to either expand, contract or disappear. The festival has come as far as it can go within the constraints of the VAT limit and as a result the visiting musicians have been soaking up the declining wages whilst the audience has been cheerfully doing without adequate standards of comfort and hospitality. I say we make it bigger and better.
“Let’s make the tenting fabulous. Let’s make the audiences comfortable. Let’s ensure that the visiting musicians are paid properly. Let’s give all these visitors to the beautiful town of Swanage a welcome to be proud of!”
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