The Southport Jazz festival returns for the third year with only women headlining.
Ten shows will be hosted in The Grand in the town’s centre over the course of three days.
One of this year’s headliners, Claire Martin, described the festival as ‘refreshing’.
She said: “Jazz is it still is a very much of a male scene, although we are making ways waves as females and there’s fantastic players and singers coming out of all the institutions and all the colleges, and we are making a small dent, but it is still mostly men.”
She added: “It shows women in jazz are really making their mark I’m really pleased with the programmer there I think they’ve done a great job and it’s a good statement.”
Andrew Brown, the owner of Stand Up for Southport online journal thinks that the festival brings support to the town during their quietest period.
“Southport is an amazing place to be in the summer and its such a busy time in the summer holidays, but I think when its January and its cold what we really need is some vibrant event to bring people into the town.”
He added: “Thousands of people across the UK come and enjoy the jazz, and then those people stay over, and go to the shops and go to the restaurants and make the town busy.”
The Southport Jazz Festival will be held between the 29th of January until the 1st of February.
More on this years festival here:
