Support Harbour Street Jazz & Blues Festival!

The Harbour Street Jazz and Blues Festival is pretty unique!

In its 8th year, it takes place in Oamaru every Otago Anniversary weekend in March.

But that's not what makes it special.

It's a feel-good, family friendly, safe and all-inclusive Festival with something for everyone; whether it is fine-dining and toe-tapping tunes on Friday night, street performances during the day on Saturday with the centralised hub of performances in historic Harbour Street on Saturday night or fun for the whole family on Sunday with street stages, dance displays, the talent quest, family concert or much more.

But that's still not what makes it special.

The really special and unique thing about it, is that the whole event is mostly FREE - with the only ticketed event the Sunday night Festival wrap up Grande Finale!

As you can imagine the organising committee, which is made up entirely of volunteers, have a big job. They arrange musicians, venues, accommodation, ensure technical set-up, licences and legal requirements are in place, organise workshops with professional musicians to nurture emerging talent, do all the marketing and promotion, run the Talent Quest and even arrange for local musicians to play in some of the rest homes, so that those unable to make it to town can still enjoy the magic of live music.

Oh, and one other thing - they raise the funds to make the whole thing possible! And it costs quite a lot to put on a FREE Festival.

This is where you come in.

Anything you can donate to help us would be wonderful!

It's not just about enjoying listening to a wide array of Jazz and Blues tunes – it’s a festival that brings people together and creates an intimate, safe and connected atmosphere for each of them to craft their own unique experience of music over the weekend; whether they want just listen, dance, play or learn.

Pretty UNIQUE, pretty special. Let's keep it that way!