The Indy Jazz Fest may be shorter this year -- only a weekend instead of a week -- but no one can complain when a king and a queen are showing up. Blues guitarist B.B. King and queen of soul Aretha Franklin will headline the fourth annual jazz festival June 14-16 in downtown Indianapolis, joining Arturo Sandoval, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, David Sanborn, Norah Jones, Bruce Hornsby, Dianne Reeves, and more performers. The festival has drawn more than 200,000 people since 1999.
A shorter program this year left organizers with more money to spend booking talent for each night, said Tasker Day, the organization's executive director. "The budget that we used to book our evening shows during the week last year, we've used that to strengthen the festival during days leading up to the headliners this year," Day said.
Festival promoters said they also had a much larger pool of talent from which to choose. Last year the concert was held in July because the city was the host of the World Police and Fire Games in June. "Many of the top jazz and blues artists leave the states during the months of July and August to play in European festivals," Day said, which left festival promoters with fewer national artists to book.
This year's concert will take place on three stages, and also feature a "Jazz Village" and the Jazz Kidz Education Pavilion. For more information, visit the event's official Web site.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
A shorter program this year left organizers with more money to spend booking talent for each night, said Tasker Day, the organization's executive director. "The budget that we used to book our evening shows during the week last year, we've used that to strengthen the festival during days leading up to the headliners this year," Day said.
Festival promoters said they also had a much larger pool of talent from which to choose. Last year the concert was held in July because the city was the host of the World Police and Fire Games in June. "Many of the top jazz and blues artists leave the states during the months of July and August to play in European festivals," Day said, which left festival promoters with fewer national artists to book.
This year's concert will take place on three stages, and also feature a "Jazz Village" and the Jazz Kidz Education Pavilion. For more information, visit the event's official Web site.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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