Jazz@Rochester

Over at AllAboutJazz.com, Robert Iannapollo recently posted a review of the 2005 Rochester International Jazz Festival. One fact that I hadn’t seen brought out was the difference in the number of attending the festival this year as compared to earlier years. Iannapollo writes:

An early summary of the attendance figures shows as many as 65,000 people attended this year. The original 2002 festival had an attendance of 15,000. It’s definitely a festival on the upswing and one that’s found its own character. And with the increasing attendance figures, it’s an encouraging sign that if you don’t underestimate the intelligence of the audience, good things can occur.

Like Iannapollo, I think that one mark of John Nugent’s approach to programming the RIJF is pushing the envelope while doing enough with “known” and “safe” artists to get enough “bums in seats” to keep the festival going financially. The fact that festival attendance has gone so far up is a sign that this approach is doing airight.