Medicine Hat Jazz Fest - 25th Anniversary

Posted by Dan Kammerer 
on May 12, 2015
 

Presenter Lyle Rebbeck shared with the Club how 2015 is the 25th Anniversary of the Medicine Hat Jazz Festival. The dates are June 21-28 for this years Jazz Fest. There are 140 Musicians taking part in the event. Between 6,000 to 8,000 people attend the Jazz Fest each year.

 

 

To ensure success at the Jazz Fest, Lyle has always focused on bringing talented musicians, rather than trying to guilt the audience to support the event. He made a conscious decision to build trust in the community so people would have a good experience, and come back the next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sponsors

Corporate sponsors are difficult to get on board, so Lyle built on local corporate sponsors.  The large corporate sponsors he has attracted, have local ties within the community. The Calgary Jazz Fest has gone bankrupt 3 times in the last 15 years and they are now modeling themselves after the Medicine Hat Jazz Fest.

 

Challenges

“Jazz” itself. Not the most popular music. Everyone has their pre-conceived ideas of what Jazz is, so the music has been brought outside; Kin Coulee; Tim Hortons; Downtown Parking Garage etc. People can hear the music and mostly they find it’s better than they expected.

 

The Jazz Fest allows for Community Building.

People can enjoy the music with their neighbors. There are many events planed for this year’s festival. Family Events; Workshops; Jazz Clubs; Soft seat concerts. The Esplanade will have a Jazz Club during the week that will open at 10:30 PM, when Jazz wakes up.

 

If you’d like to volunteer to help, or want more information on the festival go to the website; www.medicinehatjazzfest.com 

 

Meeting Notes:

  • At the District Conference held in Medicine Hat the past weekend, our club received the 1st place award for highest new members for a medium sized clubs (30 - 50).
  • On that note, we will be inducting a new member to our club on May 26.
  • The Medicine Hat Library hosted a reception on Thursday evening for their Ride the Road to Reading, which we sponsor.
  • Dan has raffle tickets available for our $15,000 Stampede Raffle. We can pre-sell tickets prior to the Stampede. Please pick up a book from Dan. We pre-sold $2,000 last year.
  • Dan & Keith have been responsible for the Stampede Raffle for the past 5 years and are now looking for someone, or a couple of members, to takeover.
  • Clare handed out a few fines, (himself included) and received a number of Happy Dollars.
  • Bonnie’s ticket was drawn but No Luck!  Play Again!