Festival year 2007
The 42nd Pori Jazz festival was held 14.-22.7.2007. The jazz street was opened a day earlier on Friday 13th and at the same time the very first tunes were heard on Radio Nova Stage. Altogether 537 artists travelled to Pori forming 159 performance groups. Out of these groups, 81 were from Finland and 79 from abroad. Two thirds of the festival featured jazz music and rest other rhythm music. As in previous years, there were 12 concert locations on both sides of the Kokemäki river.
Pori Jazz festival sold 58 000 tickets. The biggest crowd was at Thursday’s Kirjurinluoto Arena – 15 000 tickets were sold to the concert area. On Friday the sales reached 8 200, on Saturday 12 200 and Sunday attracted 2 500 paying customers. It is estimated that approximately 83 000 music lovers were present at the admission free concerts. Altogether 141 000 people visited Pori Jazz and that made us the second biggest summer festival in Finland in 2007.
Pori Jazz Managing Director Katja Leppäkoski thinks the result was good taking into consideration this year’s fierce competition from numerous stadium concerts. At the end of the day the 42nd Pori Jazz festival was a success artistically as well as financially.
In addition the third Pori Jazz Kids Festival brought 70 performers to over 70 events. The popularity of the Kids Festival continued to grow bringing the total of listeners to 15 000 – mainly kids with their parents and grandparents. Not even torrential rain could deter the kids from attending music workshops, acrobat performances, magic shows, rhythm circles nor from the main concert on the last day of the festival Wednesday 18.7.2007. Finland is celebrating its 90 years of independence this year and Wednesday’s concert was also a part of the official celebrations. All Pori Jazz Kids Festival events were once again free of charge.
Festival programme was very versatile and it was even described as “music lover’s dream”. Main crowd pullers were Paul Anka, Sly and the Family Stone, Steely Dan and Ziggy Marley. In addition to these names also LP42’s programme, Theatre and Ultra Music Nights’s experimental jazz offering received praise from the punters. Also the vibe at Pori Jazz jam sessions was worth experiencing.
Trumpet player Jukka Eskola was chosen as Pori Jazz artist of the year. Pori Jazz 2007 poster was designed by AD Vesa Siirilä from Helsinki. Developed from his original design were the “Jazz-Orcs” which were seen on t-shirts, web campaigns, TV as well as in other marketing materials.
