Brecon Jazz "a great success"

Organisers of the HSBC Brecon Jazz Festival are hailing the 2006 event a success, with more than 17,000 concert tickets sold and an estimated 70,000 visitors over the weekend.

Festival Chairman Walter Dickie defended the decision to cut back on street music in the town centre, despite some public criticism suggesting the move had resulted in a loss of atmosphere.

"This has been another fantastic year for one of the world's great jazz festivals," he said.

"This year we broke with tradition and moved the focus of the festival down to the theatre to avoid large crowds gathering and posing public order problems to the police.

"That has been successful and the police have reported a relatively quiet weekend," he added.

"Now this year’s event is over, we will sit down with the police, local council and other stakeholders to review all aspects of the 2006 event, and start planning for next year and indeed our 25th anniversary in 2008.

"We will look at the effect of our decision not to have a live music stage in the town centre, though we had a programme of street music throughout the town across the weekend.

"We will also look at how we may again work successfully with this year’s Brecon Fringe organisers to help them develop further activities in the town centre that will complement what the festival is doing in venues throughout the town.

"Great events need to keep moving and we will do all we can to build on the success of this wonderful national treasure."

Inspector Martin Tavener of Dyfed Powys Police said: "This year we have been able to avoid large build ups of people in the town centre, and we have had a relatively quiet weekend.

"Once again we have been able to work effectively with Brecon Jazz to create a safe and pleasant environment for the towns people and the many thousands of visitors to the area."

Meanwhile festival director Jim Smith has responded to contributors in the Brecon Jazz website's own forum who've complained about the lack of street music.

"We are taking all comments seriously and look forward to working with our key stakeholders and potential partners on addressing the Town Centre issues for the 2007 HSBC Brecon Jazz Festival," he said in a posting of his own.

"I deeply regret that we were not able to produce the full street music atmosphere of previous years but we now have time to digest the feedback through this site (as well as other comments we have received via post) and work towards trying to find a solution."

Read the full range of comments at www.breconjazz.co.uk