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Christchurch Big Band Festival

  • Christchurch Big Band Festival 2025

      10 October 2025
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    Kia ora

    We are excited to be running our 19th Christchurch Big Band Jazz Festival in from October 23rd to 27th.

    Check out https://www.chchbigbandfest.com/ for programme details featuring 35 big bands over 5 days, and come along if you are in Christchurch!

    There are loads of free gigs at Riverside Market, Fat Eddies, The Church Pub, the Arts Centre, A Rolling Stone and Court Theatre Gough Family Foyer. The Gala Concert features Symposium with Naomi Ferguson as MC and Tom Rainey on piano. The Big Band Boogie Ball will be in the beautiful Great Hall. There's workshops, a parade, and the weekend is capped off with the popular Botanic Gardens' Picnic.

    Any donation will really help this year a lot, and we are also preparing for a special 20th anniversary festival next year! Thank you for your support - and hopefully see you at some events over Labour Weekend!

    Ngā mihi nui

    Judith Bell

    Artist Director

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  • Thanks for supporting the Big Band Festival

      5 November 2024

    Thanks to everyone who has supported the Big Band Festival by donating. If you were at the festival, remember you are welcome to give us some feedback https://www.chchbigbandfest.com/feedback. We had such a blast at this year's festival - 35 bands from NZ and USA in over 20 events over 5 days. We are already looking forward to next year's festival October and are so grateful for your support which makes the festival possible!

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  • 2024 Christchurch Big Band Festival!!

      3 October 2024
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    We are so excited about the fantastic line up of bands and events for 2024! Check https://www.chchbigbandfest.com/ for programme details. We hope you can enjoy the weekend. Every donation and ticket purchased helps the festival to continue.

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  • ChCh Big Band Fest Schedule 2021

      13 October 2021
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    Here's the schedule for 2021. It's cut back to accomodate level 2 restrictions - but there's still heaps to enjoy! Show your support by grabbing tickets now at www.chchbigbandfest.com and plan to check out the many free gigs around town. Tickets are limited so be in!! Tickets fully refunded if it's suddenly Covid level 3 or 4 so no need to worry.

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  • 2020 Christchurch Big Band Festival

      26 October 2020

    Something we can't take for granted is being able to fill Ōtautahi Christchurch city centre with live big band music and swing dancing! Especially in this year of pandemic changes.

    We really appreciate the donations coming in to help support the festival this year. Thank you so much!!

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  • 2020

      22 January 2020

    We loved the 2019 Festival and hope you had a blast there!

    We now have lots of great events planned already for 2020. We are so excited about our bands, venues and special collaborations we have lined up so far...

    If you have a moment to donate something for 2020 that'd be fantastic.

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  • Aiming for 2016

      30 November 2015

    The 2015 Festival went well and it was fantastic that we managed to cover costs with a lot of amazing volunteers as well as donations. Check out the photos from the 2015 festival on the website http://www.bigbandfest.org.nz/ :)

    We are now looking ahead to 2016 which will be the 10th anniversary of the Festival in Christchurch!

    Any money given at this stage will help us hugely to plan venues and all the other logistics necessary to run the multi-venue festival over 4 days. We already have even more local bands keen to take part next year - it's going to be awesome! But we certainly need a lot of money to make it work! Every donation helps. Thanks so much for your support.

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