2020 WELLINGTON JAZZ FESTIVAL POSTPONED
It is with great sadness that we confirm that we are postponing the 2020 Wellington Jazz Festival until towards the end of the year.
The international travel restrictions and Ministry of Health directives around public gatherings, guidance around which is constantly evolving, makes the conditions for planning to stage an event in June 2020 in our usual format too challenging to overcome. We have also considered adapted models but given the uncertainty and rapidly changing environment, we now think it’s best to completely re-assess and look to stage a fantastic Festival at another time.
We have made this call in consultation with WellingtonNZ who are our major funder and are committed to continuing their support, and our focus now is on retaining our other funding and sponsorship in order to deliver the Festival towards the end of the year. We’ll be watching developments closely and will be reaching out so you can be part of any new plans and adaptations.
Our hearts go out to both the jazz musicians and the many bars, restaurants and live music venues who are the soul of this Festival. We know they are doing it incredibly tough.
Over the coming days and weeks we’ll be looking at what ways we can actively support our community of jazz musicians in Wellington to continue making music in these troubling times. If you’d like to help us with that, please reach out.
Take care of each other out there.
Arohanui,
Marnie Karmelita, Creative Director of Tāwhiri
Meg Williams, Executive Director of Tāwhiri
FIRST RELEASE PROGRAMME
The Festival’s first release programme is curated by our Creative Director Marnie Karmelita, and artists are programmed by invitation. We are always interested in hearing from artists and organisations, having conversations and exploring how your work aligns with our Festival. If you think you have an exciting proposal suitable for a future Wellington Jazz Festival, please email info@jazzfestival.nz.
Please note that the Festival receives a lot of information and is not always able to acknowledge receipt of, return, or offer assessment or feedback on material.
SECOND RELEASE PROGRAMME
Musicians and venues are also invited to host their own Wellington Jazz Festival events – to be promoted through the Wellington Jazz Festival marketing and media channels. The second release programme will be announced a month after the first release.
You can find out more about registering a Wellington Jazz Festival event on our Get Involved page.
Thank you for your interest in performing at the Wellington Jazz Festival.
Last year's Festival was held 5 – 9 June 2019.
This year's Festival was to be held 3 – 8 June 2020 but is now postponed until the end of 2020.