The allpay Jazz Fringe Festival starts on Thursday evening.

The allpay Jazz Fringe Festival opens with a blues night at the Frog and Fiddle with blues man Alexander John and the Tom Hollister Trio from 7.30pm, and a set at the Pittville Campus of the University of Gloucestershire.

Throughout the week you can enjoy a range of great jazz, blues, folk and electronic music in venues around Cheltenham for free as part of Jazz on the Town, the first of three areas we have developed as part of the new look fringe this year.

Fringe on the Town

As well as a series of evening gigs at Slak, Montpellier Wine Bar and the Beehive, you can relax with a drink after a hard week at work at our 5.30pm gig on Friday 23 at the Railway, presented in association with Cheltenham Underground. Or you can grab a relaxing Sunday lunch on 25th at The Exmouth Arms accompanied by some classic jazz standards. Then on Wednesday we have the Jazz Festival Quiz Extravaganza featuring loads of music, and general mirth in a one-off music quiz before the focus turns to the Fringe on the Square.

Fringe on the Square

The second stage of the allpay Cheltenham Fringe Festival, and the grand opening of our new free entry outdoor festival site Jazz on the Square in Imperial Gardens begins at 5.30pm on Thursday 29th April. The Square will play host to free live music, food stalls, outdoor bars and a range of entertainment across the bank holiday weekend culminating with a celebration of the local music scene on Monday 3 May.

Cheltenham Untapped

For a relatively small town Cheltenham punches well above it’s weight in terms of live music with a range of musicians, promoters and venues all working together to create a vibrant and interesting scene of which the town should be proud.

So join us to celebrate it at the final part of the allpay Cheltenham Fringe Festival, Cheltenham Untapped, on Monday 3 May at Jazz on the Square in Imperial Gardens. This is a whole day of gigs focussing on the fantastic local musicians and promoters who work hard around the year to put Cheltenham on the musical map.

For those who didn’t make Jazz 2009 — this is a taster of what you missed out on! Watch to the end for a little exclusive Beardyman beat…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t miss next year’s Jazz Festival: 27 April – 3 May 2010

Take a look at our other festivals too: Science is just around the corner (3–7 June), with Music and Literature following close behind!

Be part of the Jazz Festival

Do you perform regularly in your local pub?

Together with Official Beer of the Festival Budweiser Budvar and the voice of the British pub trade, the Morning Advertiser we are once again launching our search to find the very best pub jazz band in the UK and offering you the opportunity to perform at the Budvar Cheltenham Jazz Festival alongside the world’s greatest jazz musicians.

Whether you are a solo performer or part of a big band, play soul or fusion, jazz rap or New Orleans classics we want to hear from you. All you have to do is get the name of your local landlord and then send a sample CD into us.

The shortlisted will perform in front of a panel of leading jazz experts and national critics at a special event where the overall winner will be announced.

Winners will receive an amazing opportunity to play a slot at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in the Budvar Marquee and then go on to perform on the main stage at the brand new Pub in the Park Festival in London’s famous Greenwich Park (September).

How to enter

• download the entry form, fill in your details
• include a short sample track on CD (no more than ten minutes)
• include the name of your local pub

Send the completed form to Philip Woods, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, 109 Bath Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7LS no later than Tuesday 31 March 2009.

Festival goers have enjoyed the budding partnership since 2007 when Budvar became the official festival drink. Budvar’s trademark cool has already made quite an impression on Cheltenham — taking the festival buzz al fresco with the popular Budvar Jazz Marquee. In 2008 the relationship inspired the launch of our very own search for the hottest jazz stars in the exciting competition Budvar Brewed Jazz. Following huge popular success both the Marquee and Budvar Brewed Jazz return in this year’s line-up.

Tony Jennings, CEO of Budvar UK, says of the new title sponsorship:

“For us at Budvar this latest development, in what has always been an intensely creative and fruitful relationship, really does make it the dream partnership for both sponsor and sponsored. I think the magic of the Jazz world has really made such a big impact on us that we are almost as passionate about the Cheltenham Jazz Festival as we are about our own brand.”

For the Jazz Festival the partnership offers exciting long-term potential. Chief Executive of Cheltenham Festivals Donna Renney is thrilled with the relationship:

“A strong partnership like the one we have created with Budvar has a profoundly beneficial impact on both the cultural organisation and the sponsoring business itself. In a period of economic uncertainty, companies tend to manage solely for the short-term but the winners will be those who do not neglect the longer term. We aim to ensure that increasing their presence at the Jazz Festival will bring short and long-term gain for Budvar.”