PANAMA CITY BEACH — From the Panama City Beach newspaper – The next two weekends promise to bring high synergy to Panama City Beach.
The Seabreeze Jazz Festival will open Thursday at the Aaron Bessant Amphitheater, the event’s first year in Bay County. The 11-year-old festival, which draws smooth jazz fans from all over the U.S., moved out of South Walton after it outgrew its site in Santa Rosa Beach. Concerts will be on three days, Friday through Sunday.
On April 22, the Gulf Coast Charity Horse Show and Music Festival will return to Frank Brown Park for its 11th year. It also attracts well-to-do enthusiasts from elsewhere, particularly from Tennessee walking horse country in the Southeast.
The Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau has estimated the horse show provides a $5 million shot in the arm to tourism every April. The addition of the jazz festival will give the “shoulder season” — the tourism downtime between Spring Break and summer vacation — even more brawn.
All of this comes at “a very good time,” said Dan Rowe, executive director of the Beach’s Tourist Development Council. “2009 is a difficult year in the tourism industry.
“April’s one of the months when the weather’s still nice,” he said, “but we’re not at the peak of the travel season.” The jazz festival, he said, is “another reason for people to come to the beach. Beach trips are not just in the summertime.”
Organizer Mark Carter said the jazz festival already is on JazzIZ magazine’s Top 10 national list. He’s confident the gulf view, beach access and Pier Park’s entertainment, dining and shopping will reinforce its appeal.
“It’s becoming known as one of the destination festivals now,” he said.
Carter said ResortQuest, the prime sponsor, has told him most of its two dozen resorts from Panama City Beach to Perdido Key are sold out for the weekend because of the festival. Ticket buyers are flying in from the West Coast, New England and as far away as Germany.
The demographic profile for the typical jazz festival ticket-buyer is a baby boomer, ages 30 to 54, with annual income around $100,000, upper levels of college education, usually in a professional career and oriented toward technology. It’s the same audience that Carter’s South Walton radio station, WSBZ-FM, attracts through what he calls “narrow casting.”
“It’s a small segment with a powerful ability to spend,” he said.
About the weekend
Ticket prices for the festival are $80 for one day or $130 for a weekend pass, Friday through Sunday. Festival-goers ages 12 and under who bring along an adult will get in free, as will middle and high school band students who wear band shirts, Carter said.
For those prices, fans will get performances by about a dozen performers each day. The headliner is sax man Boney James, who plays Sunday night. His new CD, “Send One Your Love,” went to No. 1 on the charts in its first week of release in February.
The festival also includes a jazz dinner cruise on Thursday night, which was fully booked last week. Jazz Under the Stars parties after the main concerts on Friday and Saturday at Reggae J.’s Island Grill will have $45 admission.
On Friday, a meet-and greet session and free performance at 3 p.m. at the Pier Park Borders bookstore will introduce the festival to Bay County. Performers also will have seminars in schools while they’re here, including visits to Surfside Middle School and Arnold High School.
Carter said the festival usually limits attendance to 5,000 a day to keep things manageable and more intimate. The new, larger venue does allow more flexibility, so decisions on when to cut off ticket sales will be day-to-day. He encourages fans to check for the latest updates on availability at the festival’s official Web site, seabreezejazzfestival.com.
Tickets are available at the Web site and also at Borders in Pier Park and at Playground Music on Harrison Avenue in Panama City.
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