Reid Street Community Stage at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival
Jazz fans, this one is for you. This weekend I flew to Wangaratta, Victoria for the annual Wangaratta Jazz Festival. What a weekend it was! Food, wine and a mix of community and
professional jazz music. I could not recommend it enough.
Wangaratta Jazz Festival was first launched in 1990 and has since attracted tens of thousands of attendees. It's a playground of Australian jazz talent as well as attracting artists from Europe, UK and USA.
I was lucky enough to see Eric Vloeiman's Gatecrash, a brilliant four piece group from the Netherlands in the WPAC Theatre. Eric leads Gatecrash with his trumpet and enhances his compositions with electronics. The effect was sublime and I felt hypnotised for the rest of day.
Food lovers are also not forgotten at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival. Lamb backstrap burgers, potato spiral twists, Nepalese chicken dumplings, locally produced wines and apply ciders. It was heaven.
Wangaratta is located close to the border of Victoria and NSW and takes just over an hour to reach by plane from Sydney. Book accommodation in advance, as the Wangaratta Jazz Festival is a very popular annual event in a fairly rural town. The region also has great wineries to visit and walks to complete in nearby Glenrowan, The King Valley and Eldorado.
