Newcastle 23 – 24 Aug 2013

Drove into Newcastle over the massive Stockton Bridge and through the industrial complex we were looking at last night. As well as the other industrial activities, there are enormous coal terminals and the government wants to build another one because of the long delays in shipping the coal out, but there is a lot of local opposition to this proposal – the conflict between economic growth and the environment has been a feature of our trip from Mackay to Newcastle. We camped near the racecourse for the Newcastle Jazz Festival and in the morning Peter went to a few garage sales. Even though it is held in a large city, the festival is smaller than most festivals we visit and has a greater emphasis on traditional (trad) jazz. There were mainly local artists that played a mixture of music from trad through the standards to modern and we enjoyed the variety. We enjoyed a group called Frenchman Street, who replicated the sound of a New Orleans street band and played a typical selection of music from the 1920's. The 2 outstanding modern musicians were Andy Firth and Andrew Dickeson, who played superb modern jazz while still having a great time.

One of the biggest disparities we noticed between jazz and folk festivals was the age difference – except for some of the performers there wasn't many 'young ones' around. Folk has managed to capture a broader cross section and will continue to flourish and grow – I hope jazz works out some way of capturing the interest of younger people.