An urgent appeal has been made to save the future of the Swanage Jazz Festival in Dorset, after an unexpected shortfall in 2025 ticket sales left organisers facing disaster.
The festival, one of the highlights of Swanage’s musical calendar for more than 30 years, made a loss of around £15,000 in 2025 after selling 150 fewer weekend stroller tickets than expected, which forced organisers to take short term loans of £25,000 to pay all of the performers.
Applause for the Adrian Cox Trio at The Mowlem, Swanage, during the 2025 Jazz Festival
Plea to festival supporters
But a desperate plea to more than a thousand people on the festival’s mailing list has already raised half the total needed to prevent the festival from being cancelled for good.
Swanage Jazz Festival committee is now going public with the appeal in the hopes of raising the rest of the funds by Christmas, in order to assure the event can be staged in July 2026.
Although all artists and suppliers from the 2025 festival have been paid in full thanks to the short term loans, the committee says those loans must be repaid by the end of December 2025 to avoid insolvency.
The festival committee’s hope is to repay the short term loans and provide a small financial cushion for future planning. If the appeal fails to reach its goal and the 2026 festival cannot go ahead, all donations will be refunded.
Although many concerts at the Sandpit Field marquee were well attended, weekend stroller tickets were well down on 2024
“We have raised just over half of target”
Swanage Jazz Festival committee chair Paul Kelly said:
“In just one week we have raised just over half of our target of £25,000, which is absolutely incredible and shows the level of support and enthusiasm for the festival.
“Donations have ranged from £15 to £3,000, with the average just over £100, but all donations are so welcome. We have a mailing list of 1,450 people and we were frank with them about the situation, which obviously hit a chord.
“We have kept it a private initiative with our supporters up to now, but we have another £12,500 to raise which is going to be quite hard work, I suspect, so now is the time to go public.
“It is really positive and shows just how much Swanage Jazz Festival is valued by the people who come to it. There is also a tourism aspect, in that we bring thousands of people from outside Dorset to Swanage, as the festival is promoted all around the country.”
A large number of single concert tickets were sold for Elaine Delmar, one of the 2025 festival stars
Free music makes ticket sales challenging
The festival committee has also submitted a grant application to Arts Council England for three year funding worth more than £50,000.
Although the result won’t be known until January 2026 it is hoped that a successful bid will help secure the future of the jazz festival for a while.
Since the current team took over Swanage Jazz Festival in 2019, it has held five summer weekend events and brought some 300 jazz bands and almost 1,700 musicians to the town, which have attracted an estimated total audience of 41,000 people.
The Swanage festival, known as Jazz by the Sea, has an enviable reputation in the UK, and is held at the start of the summer when crowds are already flocking to Swanage to enjoy the good weather.
But the amount of free music that is staged in pubs and open spaces over the weekend has often made sales for the ticketed events challenging, along with the general cost of living pressures.
Swanage Jazz Festival makes a big noise in the events world, but festivals are notoriously risky to stage
“Rough and tumble of live music”
Paul Kelly said:
“This is the rough and tumble of live music promotion. Festivals are risky affairs and although our 2025 budget was based on 2024 sales numbers and not wildly extravagant, it has been a challenging year for many people in the live events business.
“We could see from May that things weren’t going as well as they should.
“What we started to do from early June was to push single concert tickets and we sold around 200 of those, so overall sales numbers were not much below the last two years, but there’s a big difference between single concert tickets at £20 and a weekend stroller at £145.
“This has been a sobering issue for our small committee to have to deal with. We have started planning for 2026 with a budget review that we hope will allow us to continue to bring top quality jazz to Swanage, but we need to get over this hurdle first.
“By securing some short term loans we were able to pay all 2025 artists and suppliers in full, but the loss has exhausted what slender reserves we had.
“We need to repay the loans we secured by Christmas or it is likely that the company that runs the festival will become insolvent and we won’t be able to stage a festival in 2026.”
Hattie Whitehead, with Hejira, recreated a popular Joni Mitchell concert at the festival
Crowdfunder appeal set up
A Crowdfunder appeal set up to save the festival has already brought in donations exceeding £3,000, but the festival committee has also asked for gifts to be made directly to its bank account with Lloyds Bank to save fees.
The most recent three day festival took place from Friday 11th to Sunday 13th July 2025, with 39 bands taking part over the three days, and another 20 acts in the free fringe festival, watched by around 10,000 people.
High profile acts for the weekend included West End star Elaine Delmar, and international musician Andy Sheppard, who has performed at jazz festivals all over Europe.
Elsewhere, Hattie Whitehead and Hejira recreated a famous Joni Mitchell concert, and American musicians Peter Fraize with Atlanticus and jazz rock guitarist BB Lenz made their debut at the festival.
Internationally renowned jazz rock guitarist BB Lenz made his Swanage festival debut in 2025
“We’ve created something really special”
Paul Kelly added:
“Our vision is to preserve the musical range and quality of Swanage Jazz Festival which, for 34 years, has brought more than a thousand top quality jazz groups to Swanage and created many memorable festivals.
“We also want to keep the festival affordable and to encourage a new younger generation of audiences and artists to Swanage.
“We’ve created something really special here, with world-class music, a sense of community, and a festival that’s affordable and inclusive.
“Many people have already told us how much the festival means to them. It’s about more than just music, it’s about Swanage’s identity. With everyone’s help, we can keep the festival alive.”
Swanage Jazz Festival committee hopes to drum up £25,000 of donations to secure the future of the 2026 event
Further information
- Donate to the Swanage Jazz Festival appeal at Crowdfunder
- Money can also be sent direct by BACS to the Swanage Jazz Festival account: Lloyds Bank, Sort Code 30-65-38, Account Number 22269560
