Our View: Stand by jazz festival in 2012

There was an unfortunate set of circumstances: foul weather for a late Easter and a foul economy with a downturn in spending.
The 49th National Jazz Festival in Tauranga was hit by both and the organisers - who staged another impressive celebration of swinging music - face a loss on their $750,000 budget.
It wasn't their fault. The Jazz Society members, and not the council and the ratepayers, take the risk as they attempt the make the festival bigger and brighter each year.
The ticket sales tracked well until the Christchurch earthquake in February. Sales for the multi-talented shows ended down about 30 per cent. That's about $100,000 worth of tickets off the budget straight away.
The popular Beat Girls and The RNZ Airforce Central Swing Band was the only Baycourt Theatre show fully booked out.
Iconic Midge Marsden's Preachin' the Blues concert, with special guests Mike Garner and Tom Rodwell, was only a third filled. The headline Trombone and Orleans Avenue performance was half filled. They were great international-class shows.
The seven-hour Hurricane Party at Classic Flyers, featuring four major acts, attracted 500 people. The organisers expected 1000 and the venue had a capacity for 2000.
The festival, and the people of Tauranga, were fortunate to have artists like Irish blues singer Mary Coughlan, and American Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, a Grammy Award nominee from the centre of jazz, New Orleans.
But the locals didn't come out in their usual droves. Was it complacency, were they otherwise engaged, or they simply couldn't afford it?
Along with the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman, the National Jazz Festival is the city's major annual event.
It has enormous economic and visitor benefits, bringing in about $8 million worth of spending (accommodation, hospitality, retailing) over five days.
The festival is looking for full support next year, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary, with an even bigger line-up.
The organisers are "dreaming about" doubling their budget and having a famous international act and attracting 10,000 people to the concert.
But based on what happened this time, they need to be sure that the tickets will be sold.
They need to be sure the interest for major jazz and blues acts is there.
This is a big city event, not just the jazz society's.
Tauranga City Council presently allocates $35,000 to the jazz festival and it could provide more support, even managing some of the risk.
As jazz festival director, Arne Herrmann, said: "Funding for events that have proven economic benefit need to be nurtured and supported."
C'mon Tauranga. Get out and tell people how great the festival is, and give the 50th birthday next year your fullest support.
We don't want to wake up one day and discover "we've lost it because we didn't use it".