Litchfield Jazz Festival plans move to Kent School

KENT — After an hour-long debate during a special Planning and Zoning meeting at Town Hall on Monday, an ordinance was approved allowing the Litchfield Jazz Festival to move from its longtime home at the Goshen Fairgrounds to the grounds of the Kent School.

The permit was approved after a whirlwind of activity started after Vita Muir, co-founder of the festival, made a presentation to the board on Thursday, Jan 8.

Muir estimated that the event, which was started in 1995, draws around 2,500 people a day from Connecticut, New York and all over New England. This year’s festival is scheduled for July 31 to Aug. 2.

The festival will use the back fields of Kent School, adjacent to the school’s hockey rink, for staging the performances. The field in front of the headmaster’s house will be used for parking. The school (an independent boarding school for high school students) has hosted other large-scale events over the years.

Last week, before the Planning and Zoning meetings, Muir announced that the Litchfield Jazz Camp, which is operated in conjunction with the festival, had been moved from the Forman School in Litchfield to the Kent School.

“We moved the camp to Kent because the school is beautifully equipped and it has wonderful practice rooms,†Muir said in an interview with The Journal after Monday’s meeting. “There is no public transportation in Goshen. And Kent has art galleries and culture that Goshen does not have. We also do not want jazz campers to have to travel from Kent to the festival in Goshen. We want everything in one place.â€

After Muir’s presentation on Thursday, the board scheduled the special meeting for Monday night.

The meeting was attended by three members of the public and First Selectman Ruth Epstein.

During the meeting, board member Dennis DePaul said he would love to have the festival move to Kent. However, he had several concerns about its operations, including safety, the number of people attending the festival and what effect it would have on town services.

“Having 4,000 to 6,000 people in town for an event might put a serious strain on emergency services,†DePaul said. “It says in the application Campion Ambulance Service has been on call for past festivals. But does that mean they were on site?â€

Muir said that the ambulance service was on call and at past festivals they had a medical tent with registered nurses.

“But the problem is that you can’t treat anybody, you can only put a band aid on them,†Muir warned. “We’re probably not going to use Campion. We are probably going to use the closest emergency services, which is New Milford Hospital.â€

“When Kent School has equestrian events on Skiff Mountain, there is a Campion ambulance on site so it doesn’t put a strain on limited resources in the town,†DePaul told Muir.

“But they have people jumping hurdles,†Muir said. “We just have people walking around. What we need to do is find a comparable ambulance service in Kent.â€

The board then quizzed Muir about possible attendance at this year’s festival and the possibility that it might be much more than the 2,500 she estimated.

“It would be a nice problem to have,†Muir said.

“This is jazz. There is no way that 10,000 to 12,000 people will be at the festival,†she said. “It’s a niche market. The only time this would happen at a jazz festival is if you have some pop artist you plunk on the top of your roster. Then they get a lot of people. But I can’t afford that person and I don’t want that person. So we won’t have that problem.â€

According to The Litchfield Jazz Festival’s Web site at litchfieldjazzfest.com, past performers at the festival have included Ray Charles, Tito Puente, Dr. John and Diana Krall.

The board unanimously approved the permit for the festival. After the meeting, Muir said that no performers have been scheduled for this year’s festival yet.

Muir’s daughter, Lindsey Turner, who works as the marketing and public relations director for Litchfield Performing Arts, which sponsors the festival, is a graduate of Kent School.

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