Day 5 - Preparing for the international guests

I’ve had the pleasure of working with one of the festival Board members this week. Tore Flesjø ran the Kongsberg Jazz Festival for over ten years and has been at the head of the Norwegian Jazz Federation for the same length of time. Our job this week has been to prepare for the arrival of the International Guests.



The festival welcomes guests from the North Sea Jazz Festival, Tampere Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Town Hall/Symphony Hall Birmingham, Parma Jazz Frontiere, 12 Points Festival and journalists from Jazzthetik in Germany, Helsingin Sanomat (Finland’s national newspaper), Denmark’s Jazz Special, OrkesterJournalen from Sweden, Jazzism from Netherlands, Tor Hammerø Norwegian blog and the UK’s Jazzwise magazine.

My job has been to prepare the welcome for each guest – to include local tourist information, a map, and festival merch (they have a balloon, bicycle seat cover and pair of sunglasses should they need them).
 
 
An important job - preparing the wine vouchers.
 
Together with Tore and Ernst we’ve arranged a city tour for the guests on Friday to take in the local sights.
Today I met two VIPs.. the 'Festival Inspectors'. Friends of the festival for many years, they attend as often as they can to 'inspect' but they're really here to have a good time and enjoy the jazz. Arne has recently completed a documentary on Chick Corea, 5 years in the making. Something to screen at next year's festival! (and at Gateshead perhaps).
 
Andreas and Arne - 'Festival Inspectors'
There’s something in the programme that has really captured my heart. Gulljazz (or Golden Jazz) is a project that brings jazz music to the elderly in the community. It started in Oslo a few years ago and has been a popular addition to the programme here for a couple of years. It’s music therapy for the elderly and nobody can deny the benefit that it can bring particularly those living with dementia or Alzheimer's Disease.
WATCH THIS VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/112066277

This afternoon Canadian jazz trumpet player Ingrid Jenson delivered a workshop to another well attended student crowd. Two much talked about concerts took place tonight both at the Dokkhuset and I was lucky enough to catch them both. Australian jazz pianist Sarah McKenzie and Finnish trumpeter/composer Verneri Pohjola.
https://www.jazzfest.no/

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