{"id":502,"date":"2011-08-25T18:35:06","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T22:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=502"},"modified":"2011-08-25T18:40:07","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T22:40:07","slug":"labor-day-jazz-how-many-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/08\/labor-day-jazz-how-many-listening.html","title":{"rendered":"Labor Day Jazz &#038; Blues fests coast-to-coast; how many listening?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jazz and blues festivals occur in America coast-to-coast over Labor Day weekend &#8212; how many listeners will the music engage?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/jazzfest-crowd.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-510\" title=\"jazzfest crowd\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/jazzfest-crowd.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"184\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Capacities vary: free multi-day fests in\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jazzinchicago.org\/presents\/jazz-festival\/2011-chicago-jazz-festival\">Chicago<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/detroitjazzfest.com\/11lineup.html\">Detroit<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0attract tens of thousands each, and the free<a href=\"http:\/\/www.southernfolklore.com\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=76&amp;Itemid=307\"> Memphis Music &amp; Heritage Festival<\/a>;\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverfrontjazzfest.com\/\">River Front Jazz Fest<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in Stevens Point,\u00c2\u00a0Wisconsin;\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.franklinjazzfestival.com\/fr_home.cfm\">Franklin Jazz Festival\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>outside Nashville, Tennessee; \u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lacledeslanding.com\/lacledes-landing-events\/big-muddy-blues-festival\/\">Big Muddy Blues Festival<\/a> at Laclede&#8217;s Landing near St. Louis&#8217; Gateway Arch, and\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dcblues.org\/index.php?pageRequest=Festival\">23rd Annual DC Blues Festival<\/a> at Rock Creek Park&#8217;s Carter Barron Amphitheatre in Washington add many more. A conservative crowd estimate for these seven productions would be, oh, 400,000.<\/p>\n<p>Large-scale ticketed jazz\/blues events during the holiday include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bso.org\/bso\/mods\/press_detail.jsp?id=43300029\">the Tanglewood Jazz Festival<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in the Berkshires,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jazzaspensnowmass.org\/p-Labor-Day-Festival-18.html\">Jazz Aspen Snowmass<\/a>,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vailjazz.org\/VailJazzFestival\/labordayweekend\/index.htm\">the Vail Jazz Party<\/a>,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.maccjazz.org\/festival\/jf1.php3\">the Tony Williams Scholarship Jazz Festival\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>at the Mount Airy Cultural Center in Philadelphia,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sweethot.org\/\">the Sweet and Hot\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0trad fest in Los Angeles,<\/li>\n<li>the\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegetdown.org\/the-lineup-2011\">Getdown Music Fest and Campout\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in Mebane, North Carolina,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freeportbluesfestival.com\/\">the Bikes and Blues<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0fest in Freeport, Texas,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bedfordbluesbbq.com\/tickets.htm\">the Bedford (Texas) Blues and BBQ festiva<\/a>l<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.whistlerjazzfest.com\/\">Jazz On The Mountain<\/a> in Whistler, British Columbia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are also specifically promotional events like the <a href=\"http:\/\/reservations.ihotelier.com\/crs\/p_prod.cfm?HotelID=2735&amp;ProdID=2881&amp;killcookie=1&amp;LanguageID=1\">Grand Hotel&#8217;s Labor Day Jazz Weekend <\/a>in Mackinac Island, Michigan; the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allairevillage.org\/events\/description\/Wine_Tasting.html\">Jazz It Up Wine and Food Festival <\/a>at Allair Village, New Jersey, and the light outdoor terrace acoustic sets promised by\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chaddsford.com\/root\/events\/dinners.htm\">Chaddsford Winery<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in Chester, Pennsylvania. There may be an\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/gardencityjazz.com\/festival.html\">Uncommon Jazz Fest <\/a>in Augusta, Georgia &#8212; that&#8217;s unconfirmed &#8212; but there&#8217;s definitely a\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/onyxworldclassevents.com\/curacao-north-sea-jazz-festival-labor-day-weekend-john-legend-george-benson-lionel-ritchie-natalie-cole-sergio-mendez\/\">Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in the Caribbean. Throw in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montereyjazzfestival.org\/2011\/press\/041811\">Monterey Jazz Festival<\/a>, Sept. 16 &#8211; 18;\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/indyjazzfoundation.org\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=frontpage \">Indianapolis Jazz Festival<\/a>, September 17; the first <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucityjazzfestival.com\/\">University City Jazz Festival<\/a>, six miles from St. Louis on September 24. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.angelcityjazz.com\/\">Angel City Jazz Festiva<\/a>l (LA) runs from Sept. 22 through Oct. 2. Total number of attendees for all this music might, I suppose, top 700,000.<\/p>\n<p>Points of comparison: The three-day, eight-stage pop-rock fest Lollapalooza held in Chicago in early August sold out\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/articles.chicagotribune.com\/2011-07-20\/news\/chi-lollapalooza-attendance-record-record-270000-lollapalooza-attendance-20110720_1_bands-on-eight-stages-stages-over-three-days-lollapalooza\">\u00c2\u00a0270,000<\/a> tickets at $90 per day, $185 and up for the whole thing. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montereyjazzfestival.org\/2011\/tickets\">Monterey&#8217;s one-day tickets<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0this year cost $66 to $132, depending on which day, and that well-established fest typically draws somewhat less than 50,000 people over three days. The two-week <a href=\"http:\/\/gardner-mathews.com\/blog\/?p=390\">Montreal Jazz Festival<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0currently boasts of having a total audience of 2.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>Few of these numbers are verifiable &#8212; several are based solely on my past experience and informed speculation &#8212; so they are of limited value to anyone interested in the size of the jazz audience. Hard quantitative data on the jazz audience is patchy, as the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jazzartsgroup.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/JAILitReview_Final.pdf\">Literature Review of Research on Jazz Audiences<\/a>&#8221; and other reports from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jazzartsgroup.org\/jai\/\">Jazz Audience Initiative<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0makes clear. Similarly, the National Endowment of the Arts&#8217; 2008 <a href=\"http:\/\/arts.endow.gov\/research\/NEA-SPPA-brochure.pdf\">survey of arts participation<\/a>, which put the percentage of the U.S. adult population that year attending jazz performances at 7.8% (that&#8217;s 23.4 million).<\/p>\n<p>In a nation of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Demographics_of_the_United_States\">some 300 million people<\/a>, an audience of even 5 million for live jazz at festivals (and also, one might assume, jazz on radio, tv, cds, the internet, in clubs, etc.) isn&#8217;t very impressive. Ok,\u00c2\u00a0there isn&#8217;t currently a massive consumer base for jazz; we&#8217;ve known that a long time. Are people who&#8217;d like to see a larger jazz audience going to dwell on the view our numbers are low, or figure a couple of million folks enjoying jazz occasionally &#8212; with maybe a third of them doing it all over, in a few days, to celebrate the end of summer &#8212; is a good thing? And seize what could be an annual opportunity to invite friends and neighbors, saying &#8220;Hey, come join us. The music&#8217;s fine and it&#8217;s ours&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardmandel.com\" target=\"blank\">howardmandel.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/JazzBeyondJazz\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe by Email or RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/archives.html\" target=\"_blank\"> All JBJ posts <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jazz and blues festivals occur in America coast-to-coast over Labor Day weekend &#8212; how many listeners will the music engage? Capacities vary: free multi-day fests in\u00c2\u00a0Chicago\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0Detroit\u00c2\u00a0attract tens of thousands each, and the free Memphis Music &amp; Heritage Festival;\u00c2\u00a0River Front Jazz Fest\u00c2\u00a0in Stevens Point,\u00c2\u00a0Wisconsin;\u00c2\u00a0Franklin Jazz Festival\u00c2\u00a0outside Nashville, Tennessee; \u00c2\u00a0Big Muddy Blues Festival at Laclede&#8217;s Landing near [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/jazzfest-crowd.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-86","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2459,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2018\/08\/labor-day-jazz-fests-starting-with-chicagos.html","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":0},"title":"Labor Day jazz fests, starting with Chicago&#8217;s","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00c2\u00a040th annual Chicago Jazz Festival, four days free to all of unfettered, usually joyous music held in beautiful downtown Millennium Park,\u00c2\u00a0 started last night with stars of of the local scene celebrating\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\"Legends and Lions\".\u00c2\u00a0Add \"Ancient to the Future\"\u00c2\u00a0to set the tone for a weekend of exciting, civically-supported music here --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/chi-listens-300x216.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":521,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2011\/08\/call-for-tweets-hashtag-jazzlives-from-labor-day-jazz-fests.html","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":1},"title":"Call for Tweets! hashtag #jazzlives from Labor Day jazz fests","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The #jazzlives Twitter hashtag campaign broadcasts on WHO was heard live-in-person and WHERE throughout the fast-growing social mediaverse. Over Labor Day weekend, with some two dozen jazz fests and parties throughout the States and neighbors, the audience for live jazz can use hashtag as a free and easy way to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/toucan.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":116,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/08\/jazz_fests_of_august.html","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":2},"title":"Jazz fests of August","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Free jazz fests across the U.S. mark summer's glorious end. Manhattan's Charlie Parker festival (held Saturday Aug. 23 and Sunday 24 in Marcus Garvey park uptown and Tompkins Square Park downtown), the Chicago Jazz Festival (which formally starts Thursday Aug 28 with Sonny Rollins at downtown Grant Park's Petrillo bandshell)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/06\/jvc_jazz_fest_to_jazz_times_do.html","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":3},"title":"Domino effect of JVC Jazz Fest failure on Jazz Times?","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"June 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"New speculation on the jazz magazine crisis: Having no summer advertorial supplements for JVC Jazz Festivals (which aren't happening) may have hugely hurt JT's seasonal revenues. How could the loss of three consecutive monthly multi-page inserts, all expenses paid for by the client, not shake a publication's income stream?Complete disclosure:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Chicago Jazz festival\"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago Jazz festival","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/tag\/chicago-jazz-festival"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/09\/jazzlives_12-day_count_of_twee.html","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":4},"title":"#jazzlives weekend update: 12-day count of tweeting fans","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"September 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Buzz about who played live jazz where marked with the hashtage #jazzlives flew throughout cyberspace this weekend\u00a0 -- catch it all here. The impromptu campaign produced anecdotal evidence that a young and vigorous audience for America's modern vernacular creative music does indeed exist, spreading enthusiastic word via the social network\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":166,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/03\/george_wein_to_produce_newport.html","url_meta":{"origin":502,"position":5},"title":"George Wein to produce Newport jazz &#038; folk fests","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"George Wein will celebrate the 55th anniversary of the historic\u00c2\u00a0Newport Jazz Festival and the 50th anniversary of his equally renown Newport Folk Festival by producing both a jazz fest and a folk fest in that Rhode Island resort town next August, according to a press release issued on March 3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allaboutjazz.com\/iviews\/gwein2003.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}