Music writer Jeff Spevak of Rochester’s daily newspaper, The Democrat & Chronicle, weighs in on the new PAETEC jazz fest in Baltimore:
Jazz fest expands to bigger market
Owners of Rochester event plan a similar gig in BaltimoreJeff Spevak
Staff music criticThe powerful chords struck by the Rochester International Jazz Festival in its first five years have reached Baltimore.
John Nugent and Marc Iacona, co-owners of the Rochester event, are co-producing a similar festival at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
Attendance soared to an estimated 80,000 jazz fans last year at the critically acclaimed Rochester event, which will be the model for the new PAETEC Jazz Festival — named for the Perinton telecommunications company, the primary sponsor of the Aug. 9-11 Baltimore event.
“He likes what he’s seen and what’s been developed in the Rochester event,” Nugent said of Arunas A. Chesonis, the chairman and CEO of PAETEC who is a Baltimore native.
And it may not stop there: “We went to a bunch of different cities, most that we didn’t have any name recognition in PAETEC,” Chesonis said. “Our biggest issue is just to get people to recognize who we are. We found a city eager to embrace us, in a large market. If we can’t get that place rocking as the first pilot program, we have no business trying to get it going anywhere else, which is our intention.”
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor includes a 4,400-seat open-air shed. But much of the event will probably have the same feel as Rochester, with extensive use of music clubs and free outdoor concerts.
The Inner Harbor is operated by another company with local ties, the Baltimore-based management company Cordish Co. Earlier this week, Cordish said that it had agreed with Rochester officials to terminate its contract to run the High Falls Entertainment District. Mayor Robert Duffy confirmed Tuesday that the city and Cordish are parting ways in High Falls.
PAETEC was a small sponsor of previous years of the Rochester festival, and it was the rapid ascent of the event in the jazz world that convinced Chesonis to jump on board with Nugent and Iacona. There are no plans to increase sponsorship locally.
“They’re both good businessmen, very successful not just in Rochester but in a number of other events. They built Rochester from a small festival to a nine-day extravaganza. And Rochester is a wonderful town, but it’s a small market. There are a lot of markets out there with much greater potential.”
Big money at stake
At Wednesday’s news conference in Baltimore, promoters of the new jazz festival noted that last year’s Rochester International Jazz Festival generated $10 million locally.
“If we don’t make a $10 million impact in three days in Baltimore, we’d be very disappointed,” Nugent said, according to the Baltimore Sun. “But we’re looking to bring $20 million to the city.”
Iacona, president of Simcona Electronics, is also an investor in PAETEC and first began working out the details of the jazz partnership with the company five months ago.
No performers’ names were offered at Wednesday morning’s news conference in Baltimore’s City Hall. That is expected to happen in May.
Now in its sixth year, the June 8-16 Rochester International Jazz Festival will announce in April its lineup for the nine-day event, the bulk of which takes place in the East End Entertainment District.
Since 2000, Nugent has also produced the Stockholm Jazz Festival, whose 24th season is July 17-21. It drew 50,000 fans last year.
“We’ll have some big plans to announce for Rochester,” he said by phone from Baltimore on Wednesday. Those plans are expected to include expanding the festival beyond the East End District.
“Marc and I hopefully will be doing some good stuff around the country as well,” Nugent said.
Nugent, who has lived most recently in Toronto but holds dual citizenship, is also reinforcing his personal commitment to Rochester. He’s buying a house in Brighton and is expecting to close the deal on Friday.
“I’m excited to be in town and hopefully contribute to the local arts scene,” he said.
The original story is here.
Again, I couldn’t be happier at the success of the Rochester International Jazz Festival, or at its migration to Baltimore. I have family in the Baltimore area, and I’ve spent a fair amount of time at Inner Harbor. It’ll be a great site for a jazz festival.
I also think John Nugent’s decision to move here to Rochester is a strong sign of his committment to this town and to the RIJF.
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