The 23rd Guinness Cork Jazz Festival draws to a close in Cork today after a holiday weekend dampened by poor weather but enlivened by the 1,000 or so musicians who converged on the city for the event.
Up to 40,000 people travelled to Cork for the festival, which has been guaranteed continuing sponsorship by Guinness for the coming year. When the "spend" on accommodation, tickets for the events and bar receipts are taken into account, it is estimated the festival will have been worth at least £12 million to Cork during the four days.
Its enduring value seems to be that it caters both for the aficionado and the casual music lover who prefers lighter jazz. And like it or not, since last Friday when the festival opened with A Night of Cuban Fire, featuring Albita and Sierra Maestra at the Everyman Theatre, there were few places left in Cork to hide from jazz.
As well as jazz on the streets and in the major venues, including the revamped Cork Opera House, the pub trail programme offered some 40 different locations throughout the city in which to drop in and out of various sessions, impromptu and otherwise, free of charge.
While Cork city provides the main platform for the festival, mini-festivals also take place in outlying towns such as Cobh, Blarney and Kinsale, venues which have now become established in their own right.
Big names this year included the Courtney Pine Band, Jimmy Scott & The Jazz Expressions, Chris Barber and Kurt Elling, regarded as one of the leading jazz singers in the world.
Being the millennium festival, Cork Corporation and Millennium Festivals Ltd joined forces to mark the event with street theatre, a photographic exhibition from the collection of the renowned jazz photographer, David Redfern, and a huge fireworks display to bring the main part of the festival to a close last night.