Budleigh Salterton welcomes the Festival of Jazz and Blues

Gilbert Stephens Solicitors are looking forward to the long anticipated weekend of smooth and symphonic music at the Budleigh Salterton Festival of Jazz and Blues this weekend. It is a four day event that starts this evening and grooves through to Sunday 30^th June 2019.

This is a new jazz festival for Budleigh Salterton. The town used to hold an annual jazz festival, but the last one took place in April 2017 and many local jazz and blues fans were sad when it suddenly stopped.

It has come together this year due to the hard work of local musician Pat Brandon, who has been organising the event since last autumn, lining up a series of concerts and gaining much needed sponsorship to pay for the musicians’ fees and the costs of hiring venues and publicising the festival.

Gilbert Stephens are one of the proud sponsors of the Budleigh Salterton Festival of Jazz and Blues this year, with the event hoping to bring the whole town together. The aim of the festival is to provide opportunities for local musicians in the field of jazz and blues to showcase their talents to music lovers in the area.

The events lined up are a jazz duo in Marco’s Italian Restaurant which is on tonight from 7pm for which booking with the restaurant is essential. On Friday a blues band headed by world champion blues harmonica player Ian Briggs is in the Dog and Donkey from 7.30pm. Saturday has musical fun in store for the children in the morning as there will be a Children’s Blues Harmonica Workshop at the Feather Inn from 11am. This event is free and each child (age 7+) will go away with a free harmonica and a worksheet. A quartet known as The Sizzling Jazz and Blues Band will perform from 7.30pm in Knowle Village Hall. And finally, to finish up on the Sunday the Pedigree Jazz Band will close the festival with British Trad Jazz at the Dog and Donkey from 1pm.

Tickets for Ian Briggs Blues Band, Sizzling Jazz and Blues Band, and the Pedigree Jazz Band (all £10) are available from the Budleigh Salterton Tourist Information Centre and on the door.

Terry Bastyan, Managing Partner at Gilbert Stephens Solicitors says “we fully support this local festival and admire the hard work of Pat Brandon in getting it off the ground this year. With the support of local businesses and the community this event will hopefully bring more people in to Budleigh which can only serve to boost the local economy.”

If you enjoy Jazz and Blues, we hope to see you there this weekend.