Planning for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival lasts all year, but preparations are now in full swing for participants, planners and volunteers.
Andre Cavazos, a fourth-year UI student studying psychology, works in the Jazz Festival office. Throughout the year, he contacts musically educated professionals from across the country and asks them to judge school groups who perform or give presentations at workshops.
Cavazos said the office also compiles schedules of events, concerts, workshops and finds artists to perform. It also sets up event catering, organizes volunteers and arranges hotels for artists and performers.
“Now that Jazz Fest is here, our job consists of all of the same jobs, but more working out the smaller details and confirming that everything is planned and scheduled properly so that the festival is able to happen and so that everyone enjoys their time,” Cavazos said.
Each year, it takes hundreds of volunteers to make sure the festival runs smoothly.
Volunteers do everything from driving artists and performers and making deliveries to handling stage logistics, like introducing performers and making announcements.
Emma Nixon, a third-year student studying music education, is volunteering for part of the SPEC crew, a special night crew that assembles and moves drum sets, amplifiers and risers for every performance. She also works as an adjudicator assistant.
“My favorite part of Jazz Fest is getting to interact with the big jazz people who are performing at our night concerts and network,” Nixon said. “They have the coolest stories about gigging with other great musicians and the adventures they’ve had.”
Last year, the SPEC crew worked from 10 p.m. to around 4 a.m., according to Ben Woodard, a second-year UI student studying music performance. All the volunteers for SPEC are, like Nixon, students in the Lionel Hampton School of Music and are performing multiple times throughout the festival.
Woodard said this year is different because there will be two moves a day — one before concerts and one after — to try and cut down on the late nights.
“A lot of time in the past was spent waiting for rooms to be ready and doors to be unlocked,” Woodard said. “This year we have drum sets already put together and stuff prepared to make things run more smoothly.”
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EllamaeBurnell