News Release
Harvest Sets Opening Day Sales Record
July 23, 2007
Harvest Sets Opening Day Sales Record; Lots of Tickets Remain
For Immediate Release: July 23, 2007
The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival reported Monday that the event had smashed it's single day sales record on Saturday and left organizers of the September 11-16 event scrambling to counter rumours the entire event had sold out .
The Festival reported more than $160,700.00 in ticket and pass sales on Saturday, almost a 50% increase over last year when first day sales reaped about $100,000. Hot sellers included Ultimate Passes and tickets for New York jam band Gov’t Mule, New Orlean's Dr. John and Cuban expat Arturo Sandoval.
“It was a giant day. To see that kind of growth after 16 years is astonishing," said 2007 festival chairperson Kevin Cormier. "Now we face the challenge we have every year. We need to get the word out that hundreds of day passes and thousands of individual show tickets remain. Traditionally, we have tickets right up to the Festival. But it's clear Harvest continues to grow in popularity, so it’s wise to get out and snap up your tickets now if you want your choice of shows.”
The Festival’s hugely popular Ultimate Pass nearly sold out in the first eight hours. Less than 50 remain.
“People began lining up for tickets at 4am, and by 8:30am when the doors opened, there was a line up down the block and around the corner. It was quite an impressive sight,” said Cormier, 2007 Festival chairperson. “By 5pm, nearly all our Ultimates were sold out. It was a great day.”
Organizers expect the first show to sell out this year will be the Thursday, September 13th Gov’t Mule show. Less than 250 tickets remain for that show.
“Don’t wait too long if you want to see that show. When we did a pre-sale in June of the Gov’t Mule show, we sold 250 tickets in just 45 minutes. People are coming from across Eastern North America just to see this show,” says music director Brent Staeben.
International and national headliners at this year’s Festival include Sandoval, Dr. John, Oklahoma’s Watermelon Slim, Harlem’s Shemekia Copeland; Toronto’s Molly Johnson, Montreal’s Champion and Maritimers Matt Minglewood, Matt Mays and El Torpedo.
Tickets and passes for the Festival are available at Harvest Central at 81 Regent Street, toll free at 1-888-NBBLUES or online at www.harvestjazzandblues.com
For more information, contact festival communications chair David Seabrook, 460-2089.