You will hold on February 3 at Led de Thionville the general assembly of JazzPote. How is your musical association doing?
Christian SCHOTT “We will celebrate our 20th anniversary this year. It’s super positive to have lasted all this time despite the Covid. On the other hand, our last festival in July in Thionville did not have the expected attendance. We asked ourselves the question of continuing. The public was cautious, while our aperitifs on the forecourt of the theater were a hit. But it’s a general trend, the concerts are running out of steam, especially in a register that is not for the general public. It has been observed in December during the Jazz Night at the Adagio. Usually, we were full, there it was shy. We thought that when the pandemic came out, it was going to start again. In the end, we recorded a deficit of €12,000 on our last festival. We attracted 700 spectators half compared to 2019, our peak year. We even had to turn people away. »
Do you plan to continue?
“Yes, even if we hesitated, because we left feathers there. We will organize a festival at the Thionville theater from July 4 to 8 and we will have a poster of madness. We will also go to Manom, we are strengthening our partnerships with Gueulard + de Nilvange and L’Arsenal de Metz. We have projects with the Le Lierre center in Thionville and we are going to relaunch a Greater Region quartet. Our Jazzpopotes will make their return, notably on February 19 at the Thionville casino. We are motivated. »
What if the audience misses the call?
“We are not going to hide our faces, between the drop in private support and our savings which are melting like snow in the sun, we will not persist. We survive thanks to the 120 members of JazzPote, we are all volunteers. We do everything to save money. It’s exhausting. We stretch our backs and to be honest, I’ve wanted to pass the torch for years, but for me it would be heartbreaking for JazzPote to put itself on mute. We were able to arouse the curiosity of the Thionvillois, to democratize this register. Perhaps we need to innovate to bounce back better? In any case, I still believe in it. »
