Cork Jazz Festival helps 40,000 punters beat away the blues 

'The streets seem to have been busier than ever', said the festival's committee chair, Fiona Collins

The New Brass Kings performing on the streets of Cork from the Guinness Jazz bus, during the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival this weekend. Picture: Naoise Culhane

The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival has roared back with a bang and banished the blues — for a few days at least — with some city venues reporting one of their busiest weekends in 15 years.

An estimated 40,000 punters parked concerns about the cost-of-living crisis and poured into the city for the first full-on jazz festival in three years, injecting some €20m into the local economy.