NZ Jazz Festival Survives Cyclone

The first day of New Zealand’s National Jazz Festival in Tauranga coincided with the arrival of a cyclone that dropped torrential rain for 24 hours, closed main roads and the nearest airport, cut power to 20,000 properties and caused a state of emergency to be declared.  

– National Jazz Festival Tauranga

What’s more, the last week of ticket sales, usually the most buoyant, slumped as weather warnings heightened.

But it was never a case of canceling the April 13-17 event in its 55th year.

As Cyclone Cook arrived April 13, staff worked overnight to readjust the schedule. A large stage and marquee erected on the waterfront to house the two-night Hurricane Parties, was hastily dismantled and the event moved indoors. The 40th National Youth Jazz Competition, which this year had a record amount of entrants, was postponed due to concerns about students and their families traveling in the weather from across the country.

After the cyclone passed, the people came (the festival traditionally draws 30,000-35,000), and all acts went on to play in bright sunshine. Some competition entrants canceled but 20 big bands and jazz ensembles competed, organizer Becks Chambers told The Bay of Plenty Times that they’d never dealt with an issue like this.

“So we were a little bit nervous as to how it was going to go,” she said. It went “amazingly” with some shows close to sellouts. Artists included Alchemy, Paul Ubana Jones, and the Nichaud Fitzgibbon Duo. 

Among a number of concerts canceled elsewhere in the country was singer-songwriter Nadia Reid’s show at the Tuning Fork club in Auckland. She had earlier postponed citing a virus, but the rescheduled show was thwarted when her band was grounded in Wellington.