JazzFest Organizers Look To Build On This Year’s Success For Next Year

FALMOUTH- The organizers of the first annual JazzFest Falmouth are already starting the planning of next year’s event, having managed to pull off what is being called a very successful music festival.
Dennis D. Murphy, co-chairman of JazzFest with Stanton D. (Stan) Terrell, said yesterday, “What we hear from people is nothing but flattering things. People embraced the entire day, from the quality of music to the [way we set up the] grounds, the tents, the food and the lighting.”

Graham Dunn, from left, Jay Souweine and Phil Michaels, all from Falmouth, play trumpets for the Falmouth High School Jazz Band at the first annual JazzFest Falmouth Saturday. The group was the first of eight bands that performed during the 10-hour concert at Bigelow Marine Park on Scranton Avenue. PETER COOK/ENTERPRISE

Mr. Murphy said that the organizers all have a lot of things that they want to improve on next year, especially the activities on the Friday before the concert, which was being billed as a Jazz Stroll on Main Street.
“That is one of the big things for us, improving the Friday night stroll,” he said.
Mr. Murphy also said the plans call for making the big Saturday concert into a two-day event with a bigger tent and an improved system for managing the beer garden area.
“Logistically, it makes sense to keep the tent up for two days and fill the whole weekend,” he said.
As for the beer garden, some people felt the fact that it was cut off from the main tent was a problem.
“That didn’t really work,” he said of the beer garden. “People couldn’t enjoy a drink and listen to the music.”
Though planning for next year is just beginning, Mr. Murphy said, one idea is to have a larger tent in which the beer garden is inside the tent, though still blocked off from the main seating area.
Besides Mr. Murphy and Mr. Terrell, board members for JazzFest were Mr. Terrell’s wife, Cynthia M. Shell-Terrell, who was in charge of the event website and design and printing of all materials; James A. Murray, the owner of the Nimrod restaurant; Debra A. Rogers, director of FCTV; Pat Ryan, a local musician who was the music committee chairman of the event; Garry A. Girouard, a musician and owner of Galileo Music, who was the stage manager for Saturday’s event and the organizer of the “green”and education initiatives; Roger and Judy Day; Jay and Susan Zavala; Robert L. Whritenour Jr., who is Falmouth town manager; Rachel Greenfield of Capewind Motel and Resort; Stan Vincent, a musician in the New Black Eagle Jazz Band and a certified educational planner and editor/publisher of the Vincent Curtis Educational Register; Joseph Pedlosky of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; John Power of Power Productions, an event organizer; and David Rogers, who is Ms. Rogers’s husband and an electrician.
In all, Mr. Murphy said, there were 100 people working on the event, including about 50 to 60 volunteers throughout the day Saturday.
“It certainly would not have been possible without the volunteers,” Mr. Murphy said.