Jazz breaking news: Low-key return for Brecon Jazz Festival
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Cardiff-based events company Orchard has been selected by Arts Council Wales and Powys County Council to run the Brecon Jazz Festival, after the previous promoter, the Hay Festival, pulled out despite a creative turnaround and transformation of Wales’ leading jazz fest.
Orchard will receive a commitment for funding this year’s festival and are to submit further plans for 2013 in the autumn, Arts Council Wales says. Pablo Janczur, and Tim Powell, who has worked on marketing for the Brecon Jazz Festival in the past, are directors of Orchard, a company formed from the Push4 Group and Greenfield Media. 
Powell says: “We’re very keen to recapture the spirit and values of the festival that we feel have diminished over the years. I was at the very first in 1984, and have been a fan ever since. We were personal friends with the festival’s great creative director Jed Williams, a big name in jazz music, and worked with him on projects over the years. This year will be an interim year, given the timescales, but we hope to be all guns blazing in 2013. 2012 will be the traditional second weekend in August, which clashes with the Olympics, and we will look to use the traditional venues of Theatr Brycheiniog, Market Hall, Guildhall, Brecon Cathedral, etc.”
Clearly the organisers have their work cut out to mount the festival this year. No line-up has been revealed so far, but an announcement is expected in the next few weeks.
– Stephen Graham
Pablo Janczur (pictured, top) and Tim Powell