The SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival is back this summer — and this year it has new home.
The 36th annual event will be hosted at Victoria Park this year from June 30 to July 9, moving away from its usual spot at the Bessborough Hotel.
“We’ve been at the Bessborough for a long time. We’re going to miss the Bess Gardens a great deal, but a lot in our industry has changed since we’ve come back after COVID-19 restrictions,” executive director Shannon Josdel told Global News.
“We’ve all been dealing with inflation and we’re seeing things in our industry, like our colleagues at the Vancouver Folk Festival, cancelling their 2023 program entirely. And we have to adapt with these changes,” she said.
Josdel said that given the state of the economy, inflation, and the evolution of the music industry, organizers want to make the event affordable for both organizers and attendees.
“We need to create a model that is streamlined, efficient, cost-effective, that offers great value to patrons, and allows us to maintain our high level of programming. So that’s why we’re moving to Victoria Park and we’re keeping that one great centralized location for everything,” she said.
According to a press release issued, the festival will feature more free programming for the first time in its entirety.
Six days of all-day programming will be free for attendees, followed by four days of ticketed programming.
Attendees will be able to purchase a day pass that offers full access to programming on a respective day.
Josdel said the new venue has much more space to include new amenities such as an artisan market and a family fun zone.
The full festival line-up and ticket information will be made available in the spring.
For Josdel, the focus is making event-access more accessible.
“We are not in a position currently in the world where people are like, I’ve got lots of money to spend on tickets. That’s just not the reality,” she explained.
We see our colleagues struggling. We are struggling in terms of figuring out how we best provide that value and engagement. And this is the solution that we’ve arrived at. We amalgamate our operations into a really smooth, efficient procedure and we pass those savings on to our patrons.”