2021 Jazz Festival Postponed Due to Covid-19
With great regret, the Jazz Club announces the postponement of the Jazz Festival that was tentatively scheduled for May 9 - 13, 2021. The recent increase in the daily new Covid cases and the infection rate for the Greater Sarasota Region, including both Sarasota and Manatee counties, and concern for the health and safety of our members and musicians has prompted this decision.
Please know we made every effort to find a way to avoid the postponement. The Festival Committee and Staff worked very hard to schedule and produce a festival to be proud of. We do not regret at all the effort of the last two months. The Jazz Club remains hopeful that in the near future we will again be able to provide the best jazz on Florida's Westcoast. That’s What We Do.
Please continue to check our website and face book page for updates on future events.
THANK YOU for your continued support and understanding.
After a difficult month and a very bad week of covid numbers, the Jazz Club Board voted on March 30th to "postpone" this year's May festival.
Daily New Covid Cases and the Infection Rate for the Greater Sarasota Region, including both Sarasota and Manatee counties, not only failed to meet the safety standards we approved in February, but they were trending in the wrong direction. Conditions are getting worse. A new surge appears to have started. The only bright light was the high vaccination rate for our 65+ population.
We could have compromised (ignored) the safety criteria we established and published on our website and voted to Go Forward with the festival. That would have given us another four weeks to see if conditions improved. But we believe that we would have ultimately canceled anyway. We also would have exposed the Jazz Club to significant financial losses, which we did want to experience again.
That said, please know we made every effort to find a way not to cancel. We don't regret at all the effort of the last three months. We know how eager our community is to return to live performance; and we were very pleased to attempt to be in a position to provide some work to our many wonderful musicians. We are just going to have to wait a while longer.
A major "silver lining" that emerged during the planning of the 2021 festival is our new partnership with Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates (SANCA) at Nathan Benderson Park. We look forward to working together with the SANCA/NBP staff as we develop a bigger and better Festival for 2022!
We of course want to thank our major sponsors for their many years of involvement and support. The Harold & Evelyn R. Davis Memorial Foundation, Entertainment Cruise Productions/The Jazz Cruise, Arbors Records and The Sarasota County Tourist Development Cultural/Arts Program have made it possible for the Jazz Club of Sarasota to sustain its annual festival into its fifth decade of operation.
The Festival Will Return in 2022
Cases Falling Nationally from January through February, then Rising at the End of March
Daily Cases Per 100,000 people in Sarasota Metro Region Never Drops to Target of Less than 5.0. Then Starts To Rise in March.
Daily Infection Rate Rises Above 1.0.
