Merimbula Jazz Festival and the beauty of the Sapphire Coast

Since 1981, the town of Merimbula (on the south coast of NSW) hosts the annual Merimbula Jazz Festival over the June long weekend. The choir that I sing with (Rhythm Syndicate, based in Canberra) had 3 gigs over the long weekend, so I got a great chance to experience the music festival and see the town for the first time. I had a great time at the Merimbula Jazz Festival. From mid morning to about 11pm at night, there was music non-stop for the entire duration of the festival at all 6 official MJF venues, and also performances around the town- on the street, in restaurants, in churches- that weren't part of the official program. The ordinarily sleepy town was alive with jazz, blues, funk, and gospel.The local Merimbula buses get converted into a shuttle bus for people getting from venue to venue during the festival, and the displayed route on the front of the bus is renamed 'jazz bus'. So cool.

I enjoyed the unofficial performances more generally because they were in nicer spaces for enjoying music; the official program was hosted in rather depressing auditoriums/halls in RSL clubs, decorated woefully with clusters of ribboned balloons- which killed the vibe a little bit and wasn't well suited to jazz performance in general. I hope they change that.

Apart from my dislike for the official performance spaces, I found the festival really fun. There are some pretty stellar acts at the festival, and I am definitely going back for more next year!

Merimbula also boasts beautiful beaches and spectacular seafood- there's a great restaurant/oyster farm in Merimbula that I'll tell you about in the next blog post.

Canberra-based jazz band In 2 Deep featuring Mike Dooley on piano and Rachel Thorne on vocals.