- Cork Jazz Festival
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Cork Jazz Festival 
Location(s) Cork, Ireland Years active 1978+ Date(s) Late October Genre Jazz Website CorkJazzFestival.com The Cork Jazz Festival is an annual music festival held in Cork City, Ireland in late October every year since 1978.[1]
The festival is Ireland's biggest jazz event and attracts hundreds of musicians and thousands of music fans to the city each year.[2]
Jim Mountjoy founded the festival in October 1978. Mountjoy was marketing manager of the Metropole Hotel in the city at the time, and, faced with filling his property for the weekend, scheduled the first jazz festival to coincide with the newly instituted October bank holiday.[3][4]
A small committee was formed[5] and obtained sponsorship from John Player & Sons.[6] The festival was an instant success with thousands of jazz fans coming to Ireland's first jazz festival.[5] Guinness became the major sponsor in 1982.[6]
As festival director between 1978 and 1986,[7] Mountjoy also introduced a Pub Trail, a Jazz Boat (from the UK) and a Jazz Train (from Dublin) to expand the size and appeal of the festival.[8] He also travelled to the UK, mainland Europe, Canada and 27 states in the US giving radio and television interviews, and press conferences in New York and The Press Club of San Francisco to promote the festival.[8]
Over 40,000 people now visit the festival each year from many parts of the world.[1][2]
To date, over one million jazz fans have visited Cork[4] to hear noted jazz musicians such as: Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Mel Torme, Wynton Marsalis, Buddy Rich, Turk Murphy, Oscar Peterson, Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Cleo Laine, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Gerry Mulligan, Stéphane Grappelli, Sonny Rollins, and others.
External links
References
- ^ a b "Cork welcomes 45,000 revellers for recession-beating jazz festival". Irish Times. 26 October 2009. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1026/1224257456846.html. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- ^ a b "Cork Jazz Festival on song to scoop business association award". Irish Examiner. 14 June 2007. http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2007/06/14/story35050.asp. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
- ^ Irish Statute Book
- ^ a b Sky Arts HD - Sky Arts At Cork Jazz Festival, broadcast 11th Of October 2009
- ^ a b Cork Moments - RTÉ Radio 1 , broadcast on 27th Of October 2005[1]
- ^ a b Jack McGouran - Programme Director, Guinness Cork Jazz Festival - Cork Independent - 1 November 2007
- ^ Cork Archive - Cork Archived Accession Number 2007/004
- ^ a b The Right Hook - NewsTalk 106-108fm, Dublin, Ireland broadcast on 21st October 2010 at 18:20 BST
Categories:- Recurring events established in 1978
- Cork (city)
- Jazz festivals in Ireland
- Visitor attractions in County Cork
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