The Nanaimo International Jazz Festival organizers want to turn the city into New Orleans north for a few days, and they’re going all out.
“We’re doing a pretty ambitious thing…” said Norman Abbey, a director with the Nanaimo International Jazz Festival Association. “We want to get the word out, the more the better, especially for the first one.”
The event will take place over three days Sept. 15-17 – workshops will begin even earlier in the week – and nine events are plnned, five of them free and four of them ticketed.
The festival will be headlined by John Ellis and Double-Wide, coming up from New Orleans to play a show at the Port Theatre on Sept. 16.
Another highlight will be a New Orleans-style parade Sept. 16 which Abbey said is a traditional second-line style parade.
“The first line is the musicians, and the second line is all the people in the neighbourhood they’re going through,” he said. “They join in the parade, they decorate their parasols, umbrellas, there’s beads, all that kind of stuff.”
Abbey said with the festival two weeks away, there’s a lot of enthusiasm building in the jazz community and also among the event’s many sponsors and supporters, for example the Nanaimo Hospitality Association.
“They want to promote tourism and so do we. In shoulder season, in September in Nanaimo everybody wants to extend the tourist season,” he said.
The festival begins with a free kickoff concert featuring NMA Big Band and others, Sept. 15, 4:30-6 p.m., Diana Krall Plaza.
Andrew Homzy’s NOLA NightHawks will play at a swing/jazz dance at the Best Western Dorchester Hotel, Sept. 15, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
The parade is Sept. 16, noon-1 p.m., from the Old City Quarter to Pioneer Plaza, followed by a free Mardi Gras party featuring Steve Jones’ Decadence from 1-3 p.m. at Pioneer Plaza. Jazz on the Waterfront featuring Marty Steele and Larry Miller, goes from 3:30-5 p.m. at McGregor Park and is also free.
Ellis and Double-Wide perform Portraits from New Orleans that night at 7:30 p.m. and another ticketed event, the Midnight Jazz Jam featuring the Sound of Surprise, follows from 10 p.m.-midnight at the Dorchester.
Sunny Side-Up Sessions start off Sept. 17 at 12:30-2:30 p.m. at Diana Krall Plaza, a free show featuring Freedom Gospel Choir and Gerry Barnum’s Blues Blasters. Scott, Rhodes and Bush take the stage at the Port from 4-6 p.m.
For more information about the festival and tickets, visit www.nanaimojazzfest.ca.