Friends of Downtown will be hosting the Downtown Jazz and Blues Festival on Saturday, which evolved from the 28-year-old Riverfront Jazz and Blues Fest.
And when the event ends Saturday night, it could be over for good.
“The festival has been a challenge and it’s not a moneymaker for us,” Ken McCammon, the president of Friends of Downtown said. “This may be the last year we do it if we don’t break even this year or get a major sponsor.”
Friends of Downtown hosts several events, including Mosey Down Main Street, Beers Across the Wabash and a Christmas Day Dinner that feeds about 2,500 people, on top of the upcoming jazz festival.
They do it for charity, and as long as operating expenses are covered by attendance costs, Friends of Downtown are able to donate funds to those in need. McCammon said the group “parties with a purpose.”
“The bulk of the money that we raise from these events goes to Food Finders,” McCammon said. “We’ve given them $70,000 over the last five years. We also donate to cancer prevention groups.”
“We haven’t put as much effort into it as we probably should have,” he admitted about the jazz festival. “I’d be disappointed if it was the last.”
At the festival, local bands such as Palace Kat, Codrak Blues Band, Scratch Thing Blues Band and Brent Laidler and the Swing 48 Quartet will perform.
“It’s sad,” Laidler said in response to a potential loss of the festival. “What’s really frustrating is seeing all this gradually go away over time. It’s not hitting me as hard as it would if it were the first time, but there’s been handwriting on the wall.”
Laidler performed at the earliest version of the event, the Riverfront Jazz and Blues Festival. When that became the Uptown Jazz and Blues Festival, his blues group, Fremont Jackson, became the house band. It performed there for about 16 consecutive years, he said.
In total, he has performed at 22 of these festivals, he said.
Despite the end of the Downtown Jazz and Blues Festival looming as a possibility, Laidler remains optimistic.
“This group that is opening, Palace Kat, is a group of kids from Jefferson High,” he said. “They’ve been playing for two years and began in high school but still play together in college. It’s encouraging to see younger people perform.”
Laidler is hopeful they will attract their friends and family, he said.
“There is an undeniable energy at the festival,” he said. “Performing in front of thousands of people really feeds into a shared moment that everyone is in. I have felt that as a performer and an audience member.”
“You get there and it’s an experience. It’s one that touches me deeply enough to go home and wake up the next day and think, ‘Man, I’m glad I was there.’”
In addition to live music performances, the festival will have vendors from Gordo’s Mexican Food, Rollin’ Dough Pizza, Lafayette Brewing Company and People’s Brewing Company.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for those between 13 and 18 years old. Children 12 and under get in free. Event organizers recommend guests bring their own lawn chairs for seating.
The festival will be held across the street from Knickerbocker Saloon at 113 N. Fifth St., Lafayette, from 5-11 p.m.
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