I'm here at what I think is the most beautiful theater in our community.

I love it the Lerner Theater here in Elkhart on Main Street, and I'm here with Ben and Kris as we get ready for the Elkhart Jazz Festival.

Ben, tell me a little bit about the Elkhart Jazz Festival, because I feel like it lives in this crazy popular bubble.

But if you're outside of the jazz community, it feels difficult to know what's going to be good for someone like me to come in and experience this.

Because a lot of people kind of may not like or may not experience jazz music on a regular basis.

But what would you say to them that the people that have never been in the, what, 36 years that you've had it?

Yeah.

So I think the key thing is that, it's an overall community event.

It happens to be rooted in jazz and the history of jazz and music in Elkhart.

And as you said, 36 years of doing it.

we've really been pretty intentional over the last decade to ensure that any music lover can come enjoy this.

So if you have a respect for live music in general, you will be able to come and enjoy this festival and those who are really attracted to our our jazz core can see some of the best talent, traveling from all over the world.

Really?

right here in Elkhart, Indiana.

So, Kris, you're one of the musicians that actually is going to be performing as well, right?

Yes.

That's correct.

Nice.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your performance and some of the performers that, that we're going to see besides you.

Yeah.

I'm going to be performing in the Crystal Ballroom on Saturday, June 22nd.

And, I play more of what we call, smooth jazz or urban jazz.

it's a mixture of kind of R&B and funk and jazz I'll put together.

So, as Ben was referring to, is those that are hesitant about, you know, true traditional jazz.

there's a little bit of, somethi contemporary jazz or, blues rock.

And, I'm also the town coordinator here at the Elkhart Jazz Festival.

And, I guess I'm responsible for booking all of the town.

And, we're really excited to have, some of our headliners, Keb Mo on Friday night.

and the legendary Count Basie Orchestra on Saturday evening, as well as, come join us on Thursday, for the kickoff of the jazz festival, featuring the Connie Hein trio.

And that's totally free to the public right here at the Lerner Theater.

Wow, that's great to have that as a way to just welcome people in.

So, how do you even go about when you're how many acts are there going to be in total?

Do you know I know you're at the town, Booker, but yeah, we have, scaled this, and we were just talking before we came out that we, you know, we've been at 40, we've gone to 50.

We might be up to 60. unique performances of different groups throughout, the downtown area over the course of really from Thursday through Sunday.

And, so we've got the mix of free outdoor stages.

We've got, we opened that Thursday evening here in the Lerner Theater with a free event and close on Sunday in the Lerner Theater.

both our, our shows with, David Hilker and with, the Truth and Jazz big band will be featuring Dave Bennett.

we really want to make sure the community can come enjoy this space and the whole environment.

So, it's it's free on Thursday and Sunday to kind of cap, the event, but, there's, our indoor stages in the Crystal ballroom here at the Lerner Theater as well as, a little bit more intimate and traditional jazz stage in the Lerner Atrium.

We call it our excuse me, in the library atrium, at the Elkhart Public Library.

So, really neat experience to kind of consume music in a in a different environment.

Absolutely.

And how big of a deal is this for, the Elkhart Community Chorus?

Like, how big is it for the economy here?

it is very big for the economy.

a lot of local businesses will stay open late or even open on Saturday, where they would normally not be open on Saturdays.

and they feature, sale sale events at, in their stores and, set up, outside, to get people with, you know, what passes storefronts.

So it really just brings the community together, for one big kind of summer solstice event.

And when you talk about all these artists, the first thing I think about is how much money does it cost to get so many people to play?

So, see the line up so hot, even the local fire department looking for me.

Yeah, they're trying to put out the schedule because it's so hot.

The lineup.

but if you could hear this idea.

And that's what we're talking about.

but, how much do you depend on obviously the free events, like, do you already have a lot of the cost covered with sponsorships, or is it a lot of it dependent on people actually paying for tickets on the Friday and Saturday?

Yeah, most definitely it is, without a doubt, an impossible task for us to do without our sponsors.

So, starting with our community foundation and City of Elkhart, the, Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, who have been all three of them have been part of this for, you know, majority, if not all of the 36 years.

But then right here in town, with an over a federal gasket tape, Welsh packaging compressed like with these sponsors.

Who make the festival possible.

Yeah.

And really are helping us produce, this you know legacy here for Elkhart.

And I like the idea that on the Thursday night the kickoff is at no cost.

I never like to say free.

It's not free.

It's just at no cost to the public.

Yeah, but that's just a little thing.

I always get caught up on nothing.

Nothing's free because it is a great way to get people in.

And then the hope is because it's not just about coming one night.

I mean, you could come the whole weekend.

And so getting people in for free to show them what the not just the music, but the actual atmosphere of the festival is, that is a great way then hopefully to get them to buy tickets over the weekend.

Right?

definitely.

That that is the goal is just to get people excited on that initial day, give them a taste of what they're going to see, throughout the weekend and then, yeah, hopefully, it would generate some ticket sales and more interest to keep coming back, every day because, we've expanded, especially over the past, four years.

We've gone from three days to this extended four days where we start on Thursday.

I love it.

Elkhart is a great city.

I love downtown Elkhart, and I love when there's festivals like this on, what are the ticket ranges and prices, you know?

Sure.

If we start, we've talked a little bit about our free event Thursday, but on Thursday at the Wellfield Botanic Gardens, for a $15 ticket, you can be able to enjoy the summer outdoors and kick off on Thursday night.

and Dave Bennett Quartet will be playing there.

So that's the $15 mark.

And then our day passes on Friday and Saturday at, 40 and $60 roughly.

but that's to see everything.

That's correct.

Anything for for those days, the weekend for $100 you can enjoy the weekend.

And so I mean, it's less than traveling to Chicago to see a single show.

Oh yeah.

That's just the tolls So Chicago.

Yeah.

So yeah, I was just reading yesterday about the ticket prices and what they are over the summer for some of the big artists and some of them, the minimum is like ten times what you're charging for a day pass.

So it's really great.

It supports the local economy, and it's just really great to see some vibrancy in downtown Elkhart throughout the summer.

because sometimes it can get kind of quiet down here on Main Street.

So I like it.

It's great.

It gives a boost to everybody, right?

Most definitely.

And working people get more information on the website.

What is it?

So Elkhart Jazz festival.com will navigate you to all of our artists information schedules, other other kind of referrals and some history on, the event, but, also here at the Lerner box office, the best place to connect, as far as any ticket questions, what's included?

so the lerner.com as well.

All right, Chris, for anyone who does not know jazz music whatsoever, one show you have to see over the weekend of the Elkhart Jazz Festival, who is it that you cannot miss?

Can't pick your own?

Yeah, well, I'm going to be.

Yeah, yeah.

Besides myself, the dulcet tones of Chris.

Well, you know, it's really, really hard to pick, but, if I, if I would, recommend someone to come out and see the jazz festival, I'll, I'll see the type to come see the hunter tones as well as, Stella Cole, who's going to be performing at the Elkhart Library Atrium.

And so, that gives you really a good mix of kind of what we've been talking about, kind of that diversity in jazz.

and if if you're looking at the count base, the legendary Count Basie Orchestra, original players who played with Count Basie here in the Lerner Theater Saturday, that's probably our truest form of bringing the history of jazz here.

So I don't mean this in any offensive way to jazz musicians, but jazz is kind of music that I don't necessarily love listening to on a CD or on Alexa or whatever it is.

But when you watch it in person and you see the musicians play together, it gives you a kind of respect for it.

Just the vibe of it.

I personally, I just think it's better live.

Yeah.

Is that a bad thing to say?

No, I think that's true about most music, but in general, all the improvization that happens and you will never see the same set with some of these artists that are doing a track.

Yeah.

perform like they do on a recording.

All right, I wasn't that's not a bad thing to say that that is that.

I mean, people listen to your music everywhere and just me, I just.

When it's live, it's just something different.

I totally agree with that.

and the thing that we say about jazz, that we can never play the same song the same way twice, is different every time you listen to a live.

And that's the beauty of jazz.

All right, well, Elkhart Jazz festival.com.

Get your tickets, get more information and come on.

Thank you for.

Yep.