The Wiltshire Jazz Festival was a resounding success. It is not just me saying so: I had some superb comments about the quality of the bands, the splendid sound, the lovely ambience and the excellent organisation.
I am fully appreciative of the enormous amount of work that goes into making this festival so successful, out of all recognition to the non-existent financial reward that the Mark Allen Group gets out of this event. However, up to now the commercial aspects of the event have never been my prime concern. I have always wanted to help create a very good jazz event that the local community can enjoy and from which it can derive some financial reward, although we are now increasingly attracting people from much further afield. There is no doubt that the Wiltshire Jazz Festival is beginning to attract a more national following and the challenge now is to ensure that, if the festival is to get a little bigger, it does not lose its charm.
There are many people to thank. First of all, I would like to thank Andrew Foster and Brewin Dolphin for their sponsorship. Without their generous support it would have been impossible to have organised an event of such quality. This year we upped the ante considerably in terms of the standard of the bands we brought to Dinton and with the staging, sound and lighting that we brought into play. Andrew took something of a gamble in personally backing this event, bringing with him nearly 20 clients. I sincerely hope that all his clients had a fantastic time and his impressive support pays dividends. Thank you so much, Andrew, and I do hope that I can persuade you to stay on board for next year!
Secondly, I must praise Hughes Productions Ltd. David Hughes (Producer) and Neil Mactaggart (Technical Engineer F.O.H), and their team in Glenn (Lighting) and Chris (Stage Sound), for their superb professionalism in managing the whole event. David brought his colossal and unflappable experience to bear and Neil is what I said at the end of festival, quite simply the best sound engineer in the country! David and Neil were on the go all day and everything worked without a hitch. If you want to have a first-class jazz festival the quality of the sound is simply imperative. We are fortunate to have such fine friends of the company in Dave and Neil fully on board with us.
Thirdly, we need to thank our printers Pensord Press and Mongo for their extraordinary generosity in printing flyers and brochures for us without charge. I am truly grateful to them. Again the company is lucky to have such exceptional friends.
Many many thanks go to Jennie Bray for helping prepare for the event and clearing up on the day. And, of course, I must not forget my wife, Sue, for all her support and for being on the go all day, from morning till late at night.
What a great team. Thanks you all so much everyone.
Kind regards
Mark
Author: Hughes Productions
