Jazz at Manly

On Sunday, a few friends and I went to Manly for the Manly International Jazz Festival. Manly is a little touristy town famous for its beach. We had to take a 35 minutes ferry ride from the CBD to reach there. Quite picturesque as we passed by the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and such. The organisers of the festival chose to set up five separate stages at different spots, allowing five bands to perform at the same time. I thought that was an excellent idea as it helped to spread out the huge crowds there and gave the audience a choice. We drifted around before settling down to listen to a performance by the Zenith New Orleans Jazz Band.

Now I admit to not being a Jazz fan, except for the odd Peanuts tune by Vince Guaraldi, but I still found the whole experience quite enjoyable. Mainly because of the audience participation. We would see people spontaneously get up and start dancing to the music. The old, the young, the very young. There was that couple in black (see pic below, guy with hat) who was really into it. And they were good dancers. Apparently, this is an annual event. Heh, like the kite festival, I didn't know about this until my final year in Sydney. Better late than never.

178 days to go.