11,000 crowd attended jazz festival (From Free Press Series)

11,000 crowd attended jazz festival

JAZZ fans from all over the country made the journey to this year's Pontypool's Jazz Festival.

An estimated 11,000 visitors came to the park over the whole three-day event - similar to last year.

But this year there was a £3 entry charge whereas in previous year's entry was free.

Market research carried out at the event has shown jazz fans from as far as Hull and Hertfordshire made the trip to the Park.

Sue Johnson, Torfaen council's cultural services manager, said they had sold around 3000 of the £3 programmes which doubled up as tickets to every concert.

She said they worked out the figure of 11,000 visitors by estimating most of those who bought programmes came back on all three days and then adding figures for children who got in for free.

In a bid to improve the festival for next year, market researchers quizzed around 200 people for their opinions. The full results are not yet in.

"We asked about what they thought of the music, venues and parking. The results should help us to plan next year's event," said Ms Johnson.

Asked for assurances the festival would be staged next year, she said: "I'm confident it will. It's going from strength to strength.

"All the comments I received over the weekend were favourable. I think people recognise it as an annual event now.

"We haven't even started to think about funding for it yet but we will be looking for sponsorship.

"We will have to look at extra venues to replace the leisure centre (which will be closed for refurbishment). That could mean more marquees."

Organiser Tom Williams said: "The music spoke for itself. The standard was high and people obviously enjoyed themselves."