Festival year 1972

7th Pori Jazz festival played from July 14th to 16th.

The local entrepreneurs prepared themselves for the arrival of the festival audience by hiring more staff and filling their warehouses. “The people coming to town for the festival have surprisingly large amounts of money and they’re also willing to spend it here. Though they may have long hair and they look fierce they’re still rather nice customers” said one sales clerk.

Year after year more people attended the festival. National newspapers stated that most of the young people had come to Pori not to hear good jazz but just to party. The unique atmosphere was thought to suffer a loss, as the average age of the audience was getting lower while the number of people was growing.

During the first six festivals there had mainly been only one super artist but this time several great musicians were performing at Pori Jazz. For the first time the festival was criticized for not having enough of modern and experimental jazz in the repertoire. This allegation was made several times during the 80’s as well.