The West Coast Jazz Festival is gearing up for its annual weekend of music in Nanaimo April 30th to May 2nd at Wellington Secondary School and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.
West Coast Jazz Festival hosts 700 music students across Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland every year, a Grade 12 All-Star Combo, and a wide array of scholarships and awards.
Wellington Secondary School, 3135 Mexicana Rd, is willing to host to keep the festival in the city. The school will share the event’s duties with St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, a few blocks down Departure Bay Rd at #4235.
Performances will take place at both venues, and some will be scheduled during regular school hours. “It’s a five-minute walk outside, not building-to-building. When students are finished, they have to go back to Wellington to play with their big band and warm-up again,” said Wellington Band director and Festival Co-Chair Carmella Luvisotto.
“It’s going to be busy and difficult to work a schedule around the normal Wellington school days,” said Anton Watson, the senior drummer for Wellington and member of the Grade 12 All-Star Combo. “It will be a hassle trying to move between warm-ups and playing, especially if they line up with classes getting out.”
The festival has traditionally been held at Vancouver Island University (VIU). However, due to the shutdown of VIU’s Music Department in May 2024, the festival needed to find other sites.
“For years, we had VIU as the venue,” said Festival Co-Chair Sarah Falls. “We had the theatre and the music department for warm-up, and right down the hall they would have smaller groups…It was all under the same roof and was a wonderful place to have the festival.”
The closure of VIU’s Music department represented a dangerous trend in the music scene on Vancouver Island. On March 19th, the decades-old Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria announced that it would be shutting down operations on April 30. However, since then the club has received so much public outcry about the decision that they’ve held a fundraiser and received over $500,000 in pledged donations. The club is closing temporarily for renovations, but is hoping to continue operations upon reopening.
Maintaining the West Coast Jazz Festival in Nanaimo, despite the loss of VIU as a venue, is an important step toward sustaining the Vancouver Island jazz scene so students will continue to have a place to showcase their musical talent.
“We’ve really strived to keep the festival based in Nanaimo,” said Falls. “It makes it accessible for Victoria groups. We have [others] coming from as far as Campbell River, and then from Vancouver as well…. It’s really expensive for the schools, so it’s good that we can have it in a central location.”
Moving the West Coast Jazz Festival has proven to be a lot to manage, but it is made easier with a partnership. “It’s been great [cooperating] with the school district. They know how important [the festival] is to students across the island and the mainland,” said Luvisotto.
Falls and Luvisotto both hope that a successful festival will mean a return to Wellington in the future. “We’re hoping that it works out [and] that it can stay there for the next few years,” Falls said.
The festival will run from April 30th to May 2nd. All performances will be open to the public at no charge. Anyone interested in getting involved as a volunteer is encouraged to contact Sarah Falls.
