Keeping the jazzfest flag flying

Ever since it started in 2013 Bristol Jazz Festival has always popped up in the Spring. The eighth festival should have been no exception but then … Festival Director Katya Gorrie sighs as she remembers: “We were all set up to run as usual in 2020 and then COVID hit, there were threats of a lockdown in March and that was it for the festival. It’s been an upstream swim ever since then.”

The 2024 Bristol Jazz Festival free stage (photo: Bal Cuff)

As a charity a financial sideswipe like that could have been the end of the story but, thanks to the unflagging commitment of Katya and her team of volunteers, they picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and started all over again. By 2024 they had found a new home and their downsized event in the Tobacco Factory was a great success. Katya was convinced they’d found the formula for a promising future: “It was so vibrant, so exciting – it felt like we’d found our new way. All the staff at the Tobacco Factory welcomed us with open arms and it worked so well for the Festival. All the different spaces were brilliant, and we were able to provide something for everyone with ticketed events alongside a bustling free stage.”

Bristol Jazz Festival Director Katya Gorrie (pic: Tony Benjamin)

Buoyed up with new-found confidence she spent the following Autumn working on an application for the Arts Council, one of the main sources of funding in previous years: “I worked really hard on it – the line-up, the programme … I think we ticked all the boxes – but they turned us down for the simple reason that they had run out of money. I was absolutely heartbroken, really gutted, because it takes so much out of you. But having said that – I haven’t given up. I took a few weeks to get my thoughts together and then we began to rethink the festival model. I’m trying to get different people on board, building up new partnerships …”

But the first, regrettable decision was obvious: there could be no full-on festival in 2025. Instead there’s going to be a number of events to keep the flag flying while hopefully raising much needed funds for 2026’s core costs. A series of collaborations with the Bristol Jazz Workshop has already begun, with the next one bringing ace singer and Hammond player Liane Carroll for a vocal workshop and an evening performance on June 21 (Katya: “her magic is just wonderful. When she is in the room it is electrifying!”)

More immediately – and even more impressively – there’s going to be One Night Only, an evening spectacular at The Mount Without on May 28, with a full programme of some of the most popular bands from past Bristol Jazz Festivals. Katya is, of course, very excited about that: “It’s basically going to be a mini festival fundraising celebration, starting early, with food on the premises. Brass Junkies will kick things off, as they do. Everyone’s giving their time, which is phenomenal, because the whole idea is we actually raise some useful money for the core costs of the festival. Pianist Rebecca Nash is doing something with wonderful trombonist Raph Clarkson, the gospel choir  The Good Stuff is coming: they’re really going from strength to strength. The Jazz Defenders are going to play their first album – Scheming – in its entirety and then we’ll end with a Moscow Drug Club set in the crypt downstairs.”

It’s been a lot of work to organise but, thanks to her supportive team and the Bristol music scene Katya is ready to undertake it: “I’m a team player, I get my energy from working with others – if I’m left to my own devices for too long I go ‘I can’t do this any more!’ But I’m really proud of the Bristol Jazz Festival – I think the strength has been in the Bristol jazz players, the amount of fantastic musicians we have in the city, it’s quite special.”

And with the world right now being in a fairly dodgy way she feels it’s even more important to keep things going: “Music is exciting, full stop. When we go into a recession and things are getting heavy it is often that people do look to the arts. They can’t afford a new car but they can go out for entertainment and I think the arts can thrive in difficult times. The arts, the off-licences and outdoor activities! I have to hold on to that to carry on.”