With Gibraltar’s Tourist season slowly winding into it’s low season, yesterday’s launch of the second Gibraltar International Jazz Festival hopes to reel in further outsiders to Gibraltar, for an extended weekend of jazz music at the recently renovated Queen’s Theatre. In an attempt to up the ante following last year’s inaugural Jazz festival, the line up has seen the addition of well loved television presenter and jazz man, Jools Holland and former Spice girl, Mel C to this year’s line up.

An integral part of the whole weekend, which will also see performances by saxophonist Dan Moretti, and local talents George Posso, Kirsty Almeida and Elie Massias, is the workshops hosted for students. Organiser George Posso yesterday insisted that Dan Moretti’s workshops, held earlier this week has generated a huge deal of interest, with youngsters already looking at application forms for the Berkeley School of Music.

Speaking at a press conference, kicking off the festival, Culture Minister Steven Linares stated the aim was to make sure that those who love jazz worldwide see Gibraltar’s annual festival and want to come to it. He insisted that this year’s event is bigger and better than last year’s with the venue shift to the Queen’s theatre and the extended line-up. Saturday’s performance including Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra is almost sold out, proving that this year, more interest in the event has been generated locally.

When asked what has been done to market the festival internationally, Minister Linares claimed that an advert had been placed in Jazz Journal and Jazz Wise, which is seen by a great deal of jazz fans. George Posso added that they aimed to attract the UK jazz market and therefore placed adverts in several UK Jazz publications. The Minister added that interested had been generated in Spain also, with several media organisations carrying out interviews with the Minister in the run up to the festival.

The weekend’s itinerary includes Street Jazz with the New Orleans Jump Band from 6pm this evening. George Posso Trio & Guests will follow, at 8pm, then the Elie Massias band will play as from 9:30pm and finally the Juan Galiardo Quartet, with special guest Arturo Serra, will take the stage at 11pm.

Tomorrow will kick of once again with Street Jazz with the New Orleans Jump Band at 6pm, then Kirsty Almeida & The Troubadours at 9pm and the Dan Moretti Band at 10:30pm. Saturday will see Jools Holland, featuring Gilson Lavis, Mel C and guest vocalists Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall take the stage at 9pm. That morning local band Soul Mates will perform an open-air concert at the Piazza as from midday.