Jazz Fest Friday planned
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The first-ever Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Friday is set to take place June 22 ahead of the annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival.
Representatives from Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce gathered on Tuesday for a press conference at Caffe Lena to announce details of the inaugural event.
Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Friday is scheduled for the evening of June 22 at several locations in and around Saratoga Springs, just before the start of the 41st annual jazz festival that Saturday and Sunday at SPAC.
The event will feature chamber businesses welcoming locals and visitors with scores of live jazz music, themed dining, special promotions and social dance options offered at more than a dozen area venues, ranging from the famous Caffè Lena to Spa City hotels, restaurants and shops.
This new effort will expand the world-renowned festival from two to three days. Adding this extra event to kick off the jazz festival weekend is a strategy to engage the local business community, increasing the festival’s role as an economic driver for the region, fitting with SPAC’s mission to increase collaboration among the local business community and position Saratoga Springs as a worldwide cultural destination, organizers said.
“This is one great, great jazz city, and it’s a too well kept secret,” SPAC president and CEO Elizabeth Sobol said, mentioning Spa City’s rich year-round local jazz community and institutions like Caffè Lena and the Skidmore College Jazz Institution.
So, Sobol had the idea to combine SPAC’s big yearly festival with the local jazz scene, hopefully enticing the thousands of out-of-town Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival attendees to enjoy all the Saratoga Springs has to offer and promoting the city as “the true jazz mecca that it is.”
This idea came to fruition with the help of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce and its members in the business community, who jumped at the opportunity to be part of this first-time event, chamber president Todd Shimkus said. A growing total of more than 20 area businesses in the hospitality, retail, restaurant and performance sectors have already signed up to be part of the June 22 event, and Shimkus predicts that number will double in the coming weeks.
“This is just a starting point,” he said. “I think Jazz Fest Friday is going to be one of those things that becomes a tradition here in Saratoga.”
One of the local entrepreneurs involved in the initiative is chamber board chair Brian
Straughter of Turf Hotels, which is inviting Saratoga Springs High School jazz band performers to provide live entertainment on Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Friday in the hotel lobbies as a way to exceed guests’ expectations.
“It’s a way that we can get jazz into our hotels with our guests and have that experience coming into the area,” he said.
Other participating sites include Caffè Lena, Hattie’s Restaurant, the National Museum of Dance, The Adelphi Hotel, Sperry’s, Northshire Bookstore, Kru Coffee, The Gideon Putnam, Holiday Inn at Saratoga Springs, The Local, Morton’s the Steakhouse, G. Willikers, Impressions of Saratoga, Prime at Saratoga National, BurgerFi and the Diamond Club at Embassy Suites.
“It was just a great, great idea to put this all together,” Saratoga Springs Mayor Meg Kelly said on Tuesday, calling the Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Friday a creative stimulus for the economy and an exciting experience for both citizens and visitors.
Sobol also shared that the cultural tourist, a label that describes more than half of the jazz festival’s attendance, spends 60 percent more than the average leisure tourist. Therefore adding an evening of programming to showcase the city’s vibrant downtown and talented local jazz musicians is a win for the community and an added value for visiting guests.
In addition to the jazz-inspired festivities scheduled around the city, SPAC’s Action Council will present the featured event, A Night on Bourbon Street, at the Canfield Casino in Congress Park. Kicking off at 7:30 p.m. on June 22, guests are encouraged to don their flapper best as they enjoy tunes from bold jazz trumpeter and smoky vocalist, Bria Skonberg, New Orleans inspired fare by Lily and the Rose gourmet catering, and sumptuous cocktails at the open bar befitting of a festive “Big Easy” fête. Tickets for A Night on Bourbon Street start at $150 and are available at spac.org.
The new Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Friday initiative and A Night on Bourbon Street event precede the 2018 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, slated for Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24 at SPAC. Now in its 41st year, the festival features an roster of artists, ranging from jazz luminaries — Jon Batiste, Chris Botti, Herbie Hancock, Gregory Porter, Joey Alexander, and gospel and R&B legend Mavis Staples, who will headline this year’s festival — to emerging artists making their Saratoga Springs debuts such as José James, Lakecia Benjamin and SoulSquad, Scott Sharrard & The Brickyard Band, Jazzmeia Horn and Keyon Harrold.
More information about Freihofer’s Jazz Fest Friday and Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival is available online at spac.org.