Jazz festival set to hit all the right notes

JAZZ reigns in Cork this bank holiday weekend with a powerful blast coming last night from the organisers, who are promising the city’s best-ever Guinness international festival.

Artistic director Jack McGouran made no apologies for blowing his own trumpet with the claim that Cork will reap in as much as €20 million over the long weekend.

"It's the best line-up of any of our programmes over the last 28 years," he said.

"This is Cork's special year, being Europe's Capital of Culture and the Guinness Jazz Festival will certainly help to celebrate it in style," said Mr McGouran.

"All the Cork jazz festivals have been very successful and an early barometer remains the ticket sales. Success is borne out by ticket sales and, this year, that's already very healthy we're well on course to our target."

Upwards of 1,000 musicians from 25 countries have arrived to charm fans in over 75 venues throughout the city. An extra 40,000 visitors are expected to join in the swing in the country's capital of jazz.

The Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork Opera House and the Triskel Arts Centre are the main concert venues but the famed Guinness Festival Club at the Gresham Metropole Hotel provides world-class jazz on five stages day and night.

Upwards of 40 pubs and clubs feature in the Guinness Jazz Trail, while fringe events include workshops and art exhibitions.

"It's a very substantial operation and this year's partnership with the Cork 2005 organisers ensures a host of quality acts from the USA," said Mr McGouran.

Jazz greats Chick Corea, Roy Hynes, McCoy Tyler and Joshua Redman are among the headline acts.

"Sometime, we'll eventually do an economic study on what the festival means to Cork but, by rule of thumb, we can safely say it will boost the city by 20 million this year," he added. "It's the biggest festival in the city.

It has the streets jiving for four days and it's exclusively Cork's own festival."

Among the official guests at this year's jazz festival are groups from France, Norway, the USA and Croatia, who are hoping to replicate the success of the Cork festival in their own homelands.