Year two expansion for Midhurst Jazz, Food & Blues Festival

From seven headliners in its first year last year, the Midhurst Jazz, Food & Blues Festival has expanded to 13 headliners for year two this year, running from November 19-22.

Festival director Adam Page is delighted at the way the festival has established itself so quickly – and especially to have secured Courtney Pine as part of this year's line-up.

For Adam, it is all about creating something that is absolutely unique and special in the moment – and that’s what’s driving him.

“I remember last year thinking ‘Why am I doing this festival? What do I want from this first festival?’ I wanted to show that I could do it and I wanted to show everyone, the press and the artists and the audiences, and I wanted for them to come together to experience something that was really great, something that was singular and something that was exciting and something that was happening right here, right now.

“I have always been an entrepreneur all my life. I love that magical thing of at first there isn't a note and then there is a note. I just want this festival to create something rich and special. In a way I'm creating this festival for myself. I love all the artists, and if I can bring them together to perform live right on my doorstep, then that is wonderful. And I love the fact that they might be playing something that's been played millions of times before but in this moment at our festival it will be something unique and something magical, a unique moment of performance right here in Midhurst.”

This year’s full line-up is: Paul Higgs, Thu 19 Nov, 6pm, Church; Simon Bates’ Funk Explosion!, Thu 19 Nov, 8pm, Church; The Cinelli Brothers, Fri 20 Nov, 6pm, Church; Errol Linton, Fri 20 Nov, 8pm, Church; Simply Dan! Sat 21 Nov, 12pm, MRC; Dave O’Higgins Quartet, Sat 21 Nov, 2pm, Church; The Vince Dunn Orchestra, Sat 21 Nov, 4pm, MRC; Jim Mullen, Sat 21 Nov, 6pm, Church; Simply Billy Joel, Sat 21 Nov, 8pm, MRC; DJ Craig Williams (Mi-Soul Radio), Sat 21 Nov, 8pm, Lion’s Den; Brit Funk Association, Sun 22 Nov, 12pm, MRC; Ronnie Scott’s Blues Explosion, Sun 22 Nov, 5pm, MRC; and Courtney Pine, Sun 22 Nov, 8pm, MRC. Church is St Mary Magdalene & St Denys Church, Sheep Lane, Midhurst GU29 9NT; MRC is Midhurst Rother College, North Street, Midhurst, GU29 9DT.

Adam believes that partly helping him with the line-up is the fact that this is November: “It's a good time to put something on without the overcrowded summer schedule, and I just said to

Courtney Pine’s manager that I don't know if he's busy but we've got this festival and we think we're doing something really special down in Sussex and that we have a willing audience and would he like to play. I said that we're new and we can't guarantee much but we're all giving it our very, very best.”

And so it happened. An element of negotiation will inevitably always be involved: “But if a musician is free, then they're either going to be sitting in their bedroom practising or they will want to play, and I think a lot of them would prefer to play.”

It also helps that Adam has a very clear approach to it all: “I want all our musicians to go away thinking that they’ve been treated respectfully and been treated well. I want them to go away feeling that they have been looked after. It's a small world once you get to a certain level of musicians, and I suspect they tend to talk to each other and I hope they'll be saying ‘Oh yes, those guys down in Sussex will always look after you well.’”

As for growth for the festival: “It is a winter festival. We don't have huge outdoor arenas. For us to scale up and to expand, it's about starting to do things across the year, and we started doing that from May this year, maybe two or three or four or five things a month. I'm also looking for venues outside the centre of Midhurst, and we've got some interesting plans for next year. There's music and culture within the tramlines of music and culture but perhaps with more residential activity, almost as a retreat, but I don't want to say too much about it just yet.”