Sunshine and a stellar lineup brought crowds out Labor Day weekend for the fifth Anacortes Jazz Festival, where attendees quietly listened to the improvisations of jazz legends and danced to catchy tunes.

By Monday afternoon, organizers stopped looking so worried and could even be seen dancing on Curtis Wharf.

“My sense is Saturday is the best we’ve ever done, Sunday was about two-thirds of that and today maybe half,” said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mitch Everton. “We had three very fortunate days in regards to the weather. The bottom line is I’m very pleased.”

Despite the strong Saturday, overall paid festival attendance was down about 15 percent from last year, Everton said Tuesday. The event typically draws many visitors from Seattle and Eastern Washington, and he suspects that gas prices kept many of them close to home. About 1,100 people in all came to the festival, Everton estimated.

Still, downtown benefited from the influx, and the sidewalks were especially busy Saturday.

“The restaurants did extremely well and I think the jazz walk is a major contributor to that. On Friday hotels were full or filling up,” he said.

As people came in to purchase tickets, staff directed them to hotels that still had space.

“We’re really selling meals and selling beds. If we can break even I’m for it,” he said.
The new stage configuration also worked well. The backdrop of the stage was a panoramic view of Guemes and the San Juan Islands. Plexiglass stage backing cut the wind and there were few complaints from performers.

Everton said Bill Frisell, who came to Anacortes straight from playing for 12,000 people at the Newport Jazz Festival, told him “Newport has nothing on you.”

Dr. Lonnie Smith told a relatively sparse Sunday audience that he has played many festivals and that this one has potential to be great.
“Tell your friends,” Smith advised.

For organizers, there was some heartburn in advance. Everton was out with a squeegee Saturday morning clearing off precipitation left from a downpour Friday. But the sky cleared that morning and stayed mostly blue throughout the long weekend. Good weather is crucial to the event’s success.

“We’re still dependent on probably 60 percent of our revenue as walk-ups business,” Everton said.

Although many people don’t decide to attend until they look outside, performers must be paid in advance.

“I signed $25,000 in talent checks last week,” he said.

Getting insurance for bad weather is complicated and expensive, with reimbursement dependent on the amount of rain in inches and its exact duration, Everton said. Instead, the chamber takes a risk.

“I think it’s a wonderful event for the community. From a financial standpoint, the chamber is very vulnerable,” he said. “Do you gamble chamber dues?”

Tuesday Everton and staff still didn’t know the bottom line on this year’s festival. Although paid attendance was down, he said some of it will be balanced by lower expenses, such as a reduced number of room nights for performers this year. In the next month or so the chamber will gather to discuss the future of the event.

“This is year number five and we committed as a chamber to five years,” he said. “The board needs to sit down and decide what 2009 will look like. It’s really going to be their call.”