Every summer, Colorado’s hills come alive with the sound of jazz music. But as Labor Day festivals in Vail and Aspen wind down today, organizers from throughout the state may find themselves wondering:
Is anyone making money on these multi-day outdoor celebrations of America’s greatest musical art form?
The strictest answer is no, but with qualifications. Some of the strongest festivals thrive by appealing to the broadest audiences. A few smaller festivals target jazz purists and use any proceeds to help finance the following year’s event.
All organizers say they rely on angel donors and corporate sponsors to keep their events alive.
“You cannot possibly net out any money in ticket sales,” said John Phillips, whose Festival Promotions Inc. produces some of the country’s largest events.
So why does anyone bother?
Jazz musicians and their fans have long considered festivals a good way to mingle, but a growing number of small communities with seasonal tourist economies have joined the party. They see jazz festivals as an effective way to attract visitors.
Well-established events such as California’s 49-year-old Monterey Jazz Festival and Rhode Island’s 51-year-old Newport Jazz Festival have become vacation destinations for fans.
Approximately 77 percent of the Monterey festival’s 25,000 attendees in 2004 came from out of town and provided the greater Monterey area with a direct economic boost of $20 million.
In Westcliffe, Colo. (population 471), however, the economic impact of the 22-year-old Jazz in the Sangres festival is harder to document. The mid-August festival starts with a three-day jazz camp for teenagers and books events Friday through Sunday.
“We’re usually booked solid,” said Cindy Howard, who manages the Westcliffe Inn. “Unless something happens at the last minute, the town usually sells out. We’ve started to see people staying longer, and that’s where it has a benefit to us.
“There are so few Fridays and Saturdays in the summertime. To try and earn a living, we’ve got to make sales all week long.”
The people who show up for jazz festivals also are a city father’s dream come true.
“Jazz people tend to spend more money per capita than a lot of other people when they visit,” said Paul Machado. He’s executive director of Telluride’s Jazz Celebration, which attracts about 3,000 fans per day to its August event.
“They tip well; they eat in restaurants; they stay in hotels; they shop a lot. Ours is a small crowd, but it’s a positively impacting crowd.”
Jazz fans represent a wide range of ages and races, said Lee Mergner, publisher of Jazz Times. “(Jazz) is not really offensive to anyone, and you can’t say that for some music. It’s diverse and has long been integrated.”
And rarely do producers have to worry about controlling rowdy jazz crowds. “That’s real attractive to corporate- and civic- type funders,” said Mergner.
During July’s Winter Park Jazz festival, area hotels and motels were completely booked.
“We sold out all lodging into Granby,” said Winter Park’s communications coordinator Darcy Morse. “It’s the first time this year, aside from Christmas, that we’ve done that. Restaurants did phenomenally. A couple were up 25 percent over the same time last year.”
When JVC stepped away from its role as the event’s title sponsor this year, area businesses moved in to replace the funding.
“This was a ‘keep the event alive’ year,” said Catherine Ross, executive director of the Winter Park/Frazier Valley Chamber of Commerce. “The business community contributed $25,000. I think they recovered the money in hard dollars, but there’s also an ancillary benefit for us as a town.”
Keeping a jazz festival alive can be tough, especially in a remote mountain town, said Machado, but Telluride has been hosting its since 1977.
“It’s a very, very small market, but (jazz) is such a great art form that it’s worth continuing. We’re extending the art, the artists are making money, and the local businesses are doing really well during the festival. It’s one of the high points in the summer for the whole town.”
Colorado’s largest festival, Jazz Aspen Snowmass, has become formidable by parlaying its relationship with Janus. Until recently, the Denver-based mutual fund company pledged as much as $500,000 a year to be the event’s title sponsor.
“It was a very effective sponsorship for them, a hospitality entertainment vehicle for connecting their important clients,” said Jim Horowitz, festival founder, president and CEO. “They were investing in a product that had their name, and it was growing in prestige.”
When Janus shrank its sponsorship, others stepped in.
Jazz Aspen Snowmass has grown from one progressive jazz event in June to three events: the June event, a Labor Day weekend event that relies on big-name pop and rock musicians and a Memorial Day weekend event that debuted this year in Sonoma, Calif.
Although no one has conducted a development survey, “we know that the (Aspen Snowmass) festival produces a bump in sales tax,” Horowitz said.
The Labor Day rock festival is the more popular of the two Colorado events. It attracts more than 30,000 fans, compared with 10,000 to 12,000 fans for its jazz sibling, and helps support the jazz education programs that are an important part of Horo witz’s nonprofit organization.
“We’re also in the business of raising money for education programs that are not held hostage to the success of the festivals,” he said. “They are very different business models. We’re sort of a two-headed animal.”
Festival producer Phillips and Mergner of Jazz Times support eclectic playbills like Jazz Aspen Snowmass, even though this weekend’s “jazz” headliners are Willie Nelson, Widespread Panic and Maxi Priest.
“Anything people call a jazz festival is a jazz festival,” said Phillips, “although I’m sure there are some where you can question the label.”
Added Mergner: “That’s what makes jazz so interesting, that it can embrace many different styles and cultures and come up with something different. Obviously it’s not exactly jazz, but if a jazz festival can welcome them, I don’t think that’s so bad.”
That may also be one of the best ways to guarantee the future of jazz. Baby boomers constitute its largest market, Merg ner said, “and it’s very much true that the audience is aging.”
