Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues postpones 30th anniversary celebrations until 2020

The festival has cancelled its 2019 iteration, pushing back its 30th anniversary until next year in order to develop new strategies around sustainability and longevity.

Image via Shutterstock

Operational pressures, a lack of transparency around festival management, and the need to reimagine fundraising models have been cited as the primary reasons for the cancellation of the 2019 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues.

First held in 1990, the festival usually takes place in late October – early November in the regional Victorian city of Wangaratta, 260 kilometres north-east of Melbourne.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts