Tampere Jazz Happenings

Tampere Jazz Happening was concluded today with a great public success. The performances of the twelve groups were witnessed by 5.000 listeners in all. Ticket sales were increased by 40 per cent compared to the 1996 festival. Still, no compromises were made with the artistic level or direction.

Perhaps the most expected visitor of the festival was Vernon Reid's Science Project. Lots of new audience was brought to the festival by their two-and-a-half-hour-long performance. This displays the Happening's successful program policy: Its very aim is to attract new audiences.

On top of that, audiences were uniformly distributed between concerts. The Pakkahuone hall was almost full seated concert after concert.