Jazz Festival is changing with the times

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Written by Michael Carr

Thursday, 25 October 2007

“There’s a perception in some circles that the Cork Jazz Festival is a granddaddy event,” says Jack MGouran, Programme Director of the long-running event. “Next year we want to take a fresh approach, explore niche areas and build and accommodate new markets and music. We’re looking way ahead, as far forward as five years, with a view to moving away from the more traditional sounds of Dixie jazz which has, for the most part, dominated the festival.”

Whatever your feelings towards the Cork Jazz Festival – and it is an event/weekend that tends to polarize opinion what with such contentious issues as the pubs, clubs and restaurants being packed far beyond capacity, the annual dodging of the downpours getting from one drinking establishment to the next, the subsequent crazy cues for the bar and yes, even the jazz itself – the festival remains vitally important to the city as both a cultural fixture and a commercial commodity.

What is refreshing however is to see the long-running event (nearly 30 years and counting), move with the times and acknowledge the importance of change. It would be easy for them to rest on their laurels – whatever about the ‘granddaddy’ derisions, it continues to prove a huge draw, regularly attracting crowds of more then 40,000 and, despite any negative implications imposed by the ‘granddaddy’ quote, there is plenty of new acts breaking through at the festival ever year. This years event has sold more tickets then ever before in the history of the festival.

But with large numbers making their way to Ireland in the wake of our economic boom, we have seen new cultures integrated alongside a more youthful population. And just like the music itself, which has throughout its long history, shaped and adapted itself to suit new generations through hip-hop, rock, dance and pop, it seems only right that as we are all introduced to change, and younger generations are raised in a more culturally diverse backdrop, that the festival grows with them.

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