The smooth sounds of Jazz will be heard throughout Longford when an annual festival blows through the town.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Longford Jazz Festival will run over three days and bring together musicians from across the state to play the genre of music they love the most.
The festival, in its eighth year, was the brainchild of coordinator Don Ives.
"We have gone from strength to strength but we didn't want it to grow too big for the town or for us to manage," he said.
Attendees of the festival can expect a mix of jazz sub-genres and an ambiance created by passionate musicians and festival-goers.
"We managed last year through COVID with all Tasmanian musicians and it was wonderful because there is so much talent in Tasmania, so it's basically the same this year," Mr Ives said.
"We use a formula ... we mix and match ... we don't have set bands, we have a coordinator within our midst who mixes up the musicians so we get a general run through and the younger, less experienced, can play with the top stuff."
The festival also utilises as many venues at Longford as possible to keep people visiting the township.
"We like to keep everything within reasonable walking distance," Mr Ives said.
"We use the town hall as it is underused."
One of Tasmania's most prolific actors John Xintavelonis - better known as John X - will open the festival on the Friday evening.
"There will also be a final concert on the Sunday afternoon, you could say that's the creme de la creme," Mr Ives said.
Across the three days, four concerts will be held as well as meal sessions, parades, and other special events.
Jazz has free expression and that is why Mr Ives believed it still resonated with people, even today.
"They can hear songs they maybe grew up with," he said.
"Jazz is a bit like opera I suppose, on the other end of the spectrum, it's happy."
Tickets are priced at $50 for a weekend pass, $25 for the day only, $20 for two concerts, and $10 for Friday night only. They are available via trybooking.com. Tickets are also available on registration day by direct debit.
The event will abide by COVID-19 restrictions such as using the Check In TAS app and sanitising, however, masks have not been made mandatory.
The festival will run from September 17-19.
What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor: